Reimagining the Financial System
- Post-financial crisis: policy and regulatory responses to the crisis demonstrated the will and capacity of governing institutions to act in unconventional ways, at scale and in a concerted fashion, when faced with serious, systemic challenges.Yet “unfinished business” remains, including: continued fragility; inefficient, unproductive and ultra-abundant liquidity; reduced access to global capital for developing economies; and the need for financial regulations and vehicles which enable long-term lending and investment.
- Emerging leadership: the growing importance and influence of emerging economies in international financial affairs places the nexus between financial market development and national development priorities more centrally in the policy debate. This opens the door to a greater diversity of approaches than has become the norm across much of the developed world.
- Technology disruption: new business models that employ innovative information technologies are challenging incumbent practices across the world of financial intermediaries. This drives diversity and competition into concentrated, relatively homogenous markets, which in turn empowers citizens, builds new financing channels and creates new opportunities (and challenges) for governing institutions.
- Public awareness: the recognition that we urgently need to transition to a less natural-resource intensive,low polluting and climate-resilient economy, places environmental and social issues increasingly at the heart of economic policymaking.It is increasingly acknowledged that the financial system can be an enabler of, or barrier to, the transition to sustainable development.
Inquiry Publications
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1st Update Report: Invitation and Background
Date: 07-Jun-2014This is the Inquiry’s first update report. It outlines the starting points and questions for the Inquiry. Key questions include: Tomorrow’s Financial System – What are the emerging dynamics in the financial system and the real economy which could be important for progress towards or away from a sustainable financial system?How do existing financial rules
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4th Update Report: The Coming Financial Climate
Date: 07-May-2015This is the 4th Update Report of the UNEP Inquiry, it is focused on the challenge of financing the low-carbon transition. Many approaches and instruments will be needed to deliver the financing needed. Public finance, funded by tax revenues and international transfers, will provide part of the solution. However such finance will be inadequate. Private
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The Financial System We Need: Aligning the Financial System with Sustainable Development
Date: 08-Oct-2015Download the full report: [AR] [CH] [EN] [ES] [FR] [PT] [RU] Download the policy summary: [AR] [CH] [EN] [ES] [FR] [PT] [RU] This first edition of “The Financial System We Need” argues that there is now a historic opportunity to shape a financial system that can more effectively finance the development of an inclusive, green economy. This opportunity is based on a growing trend
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How Paris Became the Capital of Climate Finance
Date: 18-Apr-2016This working paper traces the evolution of the ‘networked solution’ to finance that came together at the COP21 in Paris, linking the formal negotiations with a broader set of actions by financial regulators, by financial institutions and also by civil society. It explores the creative dynamic between France’s efforts to stimulate action within its own
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Towards a Theory of Sustainable Finance
Date: 07-Oct-2015The paper is normative rather than descriptive. It does not review how the financial system currently functions, but rather how it ought to function in the future. It draws upon concepts, theories and arguments from the literature in both theoretical economics and normative philosophy. Its goal is to identify a new direction for finance which the
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2nd Update Report: Insights from Practice
Date: 07-Oct-2014This is the second update report by the UNEP Inquiry, it highlights early lessons from the Inquiry’s ongoing work in more than a dozen countries. What is clear from inital engagement is that even with strong real economy policies to correct market failures and deploy public capital, some interventions in the financial system will be
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Human Rights and Sustainable Finance: Exploring the Relationship
Date: 03-Feb-2016Designing and building a sustainable financial system requires a broad focus on what sustainability requires in all its aspects and how finance can help deliver on that important objective. This task includes not only delivering financing for sustainable environmental outcomes and addressing climate change, but it also includes attention to the needs of a sustainable
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3rd Update Report: Pathways to Scale
Date: 07-Jan-2015This is the 3rd Update Report of the UNEP Inquiry, it is focused on the challenge of financing the low-carbon transition. It explores how innovative ideas and practices can be made more effective, adopted more widely, and taken to scale—and as a result move the trillions that are required. Scaling-up proven but limited innovations, is a common
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Imagining a Sustainable Financial System
Date: 07-Dec-2014Imagining a sustainable financial system allows us to move beyond conventional wisdoms. This paper sets out that a sustainable financial system would be one that serves the long term needs of a healthy real economy, an economy that provides decent, productive and rewarding livelihoods for all, and ensures that the natural environment on which we all
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The Financial System We Need: From Momentum to Transformation
Date: 29-Sep-2016Download the policy summary: [AR] [CH] [EN] [ES] [FR] [PT] [RU] Our follow-up annual report reveals a doubling in policy actions over the past five years to align the global financial system with sustainable development. Policy and regulatory measures by finance ministries, central banks and financial regulators to promote sustainable finance have risen to 217 and now exist
Further Reading
- The Future Of Financial Services How Disruptive Innovations Are Reshaping The Way Financial Services Are Structured, Provisioned And Consumed
World Economic Forum (2015). Geneva: WEF.
- Beyond the Financial Crisis
Wilkinson, A. The Oxford Scenarios. Institute for Science, Innovation and Society. Said Business School.
- The Shifts And The Shocks: What We’ve Learned—and Have Still To Learn—from The Financial Crisis
Wolf, M. (2014)
- The Future of Finance
Wooley, P. (Ed.) (2010). London: LSE.
- Redesigning Finance: Pathways to a Resilient Future
Fullerton, J., Humphreys, J., Kelly, M. and White, A. (2012). Summary of proceedings of August 9, 2012, San Fransisco invitational gathering. Boston: Tellus Institue.
- The Challenges Ahead: The State Of The Financial Services Industry
Oliver Wyman (2014).2014. NY: Oliver Wyman.
- Rethinking The Financial Network
Haldane, A. (2009). London: Bank of England.
- The Future of the Global Financial System: A Near-Term Outlook and Long-Term Scenarios
World Economic Forum (2010).