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CLIMATE FINANCE AND ITS GOVERNANCE: MOVING TO A LOW CARBON ECONOMY THROUGH SOCIALLY RESPONSIBLE FINANCING?

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  14 July 2009

Benjamin J Richardson
Benjamin J Richardson
Affiliation:
Osgoode Hall Law School, York University, Canada. [email protected]
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Abstract

‘Climate finance’ is becoming an important feature of the emerging legal and policy regimes to address global warming. However, the current approach largely confines the financial sector to a transactional agent to mobilise capital for clean energy and to broker emission allowance trading. The sector's potential to leverage more sweeping positive changes in the economy as sought historically through the movement for socially responsible investment (SRI) has been insufficiently acknowledged. Indirectly, by regulating greenhouse gases the legal system is helping to create a business case for investors to respond to climate change threats. However, the potential contribution of SRI to address climate change problems more comprehensively is presently limited owing to inadequate governance frameworks, as well the sector's increasing abandonment of its traditional ethical agenda.

Type
Article
Information
International & Comparative Law Quarterly , Volume 58 , Issue 3 , July 2009 , pp. 597 - 626
Copyright
Copyright © 2009 British Institute of International and Comparative Law

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148 ibid.

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157 Xcel Energy, ‘SEC No-Action Letter, 2003’, Lexis 500 (April 1, 2003) 1.

158 ExxonMobil Corporation, ‘SEC No-Action Letter, 2005’, Lexis 466 (March 23, 2005) 1.

159 SIF, above (n 145) 19 (only shareholder proposals on political contributions were more numerous among US investors in 2005).

160 Ford published its report on 2005, and claimed to have reduced carbon emissions from its manufacturing facilities by 15 per cent, with further reductions planned, and was adopting measures to improve the fuel efficiency of its cars: Ford Motor Company, Ford Report on the Business Impact of Climate Change (Ford, Dearborn, Michigan, 2005) 3.

161 Innovest, Climate Change and the Financial Services Industry. Module 2—A Blueprint for Action (UNEPFI, Geneva, 2002) 31–34.

162 World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD), Energy and Climate Change: Sharpening the Focus for Action—A Business Perspective (WBCSD, Geneva, 2005).

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168 Carbon footprints of investment portfolios are already been measures: Trucost, Carbon Counts 2007: The Carbon Footprint Ranking of UK Investment (Trucost, London, 2007).