Global financial stability, rapid transition to a low-carbon economy and social justice: can climate-related financial risk disclosure do it all?

Abstract

In 2015, G20 finance ministers and central bank governors asked the intergovernmental body responsible for monitoring and making recommendations about the global financial system—the Financial Stability Board (FSB)—‘to convene public- and private-sector participants to review how the financial sector can take account of climate-related issues’ (G20 2015, 5). In 2016, the failure of climate-change mitigation and adaptation globally was named by the World Economic Forum as the most impactful risk for the years to come in its Global Risks Report (WEF 2016). Further, the Paris Climate Agreement was ratified in 2016 and interpreted by many as a market signal that the transition to a lower-carbon economy is happening (e.g. Sandalow, Benes, and Augustin 2016). Such attentiveness to the links between climate risk and financial systems has not been triggered by fears about climate risks to individual businesses and national economies alone, but by risks to global financial stability as well. At the highest levels of global economic power, there are grave concerns that the next global financial crisis might be climate-induced. Disclosure of climate risk is posited as the answer, based on arguments that it can help prevent market shocks while encouraging the growth of renewables markets. However, for those of us concerned with social as well as economic and environmental risk, the question that must be asked is: can a safe global climate and social justice be achieved in the bid to ensure stability in the global economy through climate-risk disclosure?