Finance
Busting the bankers’ club
Andrew Mearman reviews Gerald Epstein’s book, 'Busting the bankers’ club: finance for the rest of us', which explores the power of bankers and financiers over everyday life, as well as those seeking to counteract it, and lays out some principles of finance for the common good.
You Never Give Me Your Money
The COP29 conference is floundering with the usual tussle between the Global South asking for financial support to green their energy systems and the Global North pleading poverty. This article looks at some radical solutions for this impasse.
Is the Green Book fit for purpose in a climate emergency?
Recommendations from a round table discussion which took place in Autumn 2022. The Green Book, is produced by HM Treasury (HMT), and sets out how to assess public sector projects or policy interventions to ensure that projects give value for money.
Finance-based transition solutions: approach with caution
Andrew presents the fundamental criticisms made by economists Clive Spash and Frédéric Hache of the influential Dasgupta Review of the economics of biodiversity. Whether or not these criticisms are persuasive, their review points to significant dangers lurking in the financialisation of Nature.
A burning issue - article opposing green finance for energy from incineration
Link to article criticising efforts to use green finance to fund an incineration from waste plant in London
Global Public Investment requirements for Zero Carbon
Sufficient and appropriately directed global public investment is critical to shift our economies globally to zero carbon. Currently such investment is inadequate, and still funds infrastructure expansion which increases dependance of fossil fuel reliant.
Webinar: Overseas Development Finance and the Climate Emergency
As the COP26 Climate Summit approaches, join international development specialists, campaigners and politicians from Europe and the UK to discuss how aid and climate finance must change to support an equitable 1.5°C world.
Measuring what matters
Emma Dawnay's proposal outlined is that the Green Book is updated to require the key metrics of greenhouse gas emissions to be at the forefront of each and every project appraisal
Rethinking the Economics of Land and Housing
This book examines the role of housing in the contemporary economy – one that it characterises as ‘residential capitalism’. How we got here is explained by historical accounts of land ownership, economic thought relating to land, UK housing supply and tenure, and mortgage finance.
Escaping Growth Dependency
This report from Positive Money is a clear exposition of the factors which drive governments to pursue economic growth despite this being ecologically unsustainable. The focus is on how current system creates high levels of debt, which are only manageable if there is economic growth
The Production of Money Ann Pettifor
There is a limited supply of natural resources, human creativity and skills, but not of money. Pettifor takes economic ideas from Keynes and Polanyi.
Doughnut Economics: Seven Ways to Think Like a 21st-Century Economist
Kate Raworth's Doughnut Economics has a catchy title, appealing diagrams and has attracted some extravagant praise; George Monbiot has called her the John Maynard Keynes of the 21st Century. Is Monbiot right?