Climate Finance: Taking a Position on Climate Futures

by Gareth Bryant, Dr Sophie Webber

Responding to climate change is commonly understood as a financial What are the expected costs of the impacts of climate change? How much money is needed to reduce emissions to a safe level and to help people live in a changing climate? Who should pay? While these questions reflect the big issues of climate politics – about historical responsibility, unequal exposure and the terms of possible futures – they do not tell us a lot about the relationships between and contestations over climate change and finance capitalism.

This book develops an expansive definition of climate finance and a critical framework for analysing its political economy. Drawing from a wide-range of case studies, the authors highlight the diversity, scale and contradictions of climate finance entanglements – from funding renewable energy, putting a price on carbon, responsible investing and financialising resilience.

200 pages, Hardcover

Published March 26, 2024

About the author

Gareth Bryant is a lecturer in political economy at the University of Sydney. His research explores the marketisation of different areas of socio-ecological life, with a current focus on climate/energy and education policy. His forthcoming book, Carbon Markets in a Climate-Changing Capitalism, will be published by Cambridge University Press. Gareth was awarded the Global Network for Financial Geography dissertation prize.

Reviews

[Ismayil Jabiyev · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pros: concise text with good references to academic research. I liked the fact based description and good structure. No unnecessary bla bla. Provided good summary of the stance of climate finance.
Cons : sometimes it feels like reading an academic article, it is not an easy read, and often had to repeat the pages to grasp the idea.