The Promise and Peril of Financialized Climate Governance

A recent development in climate governance has been the rise
of investor-driven, or ‘financialised governance’ of corporate
practices in relation to the natural environment. Investors and
investment managers are demonstrating greater concern that the
value of assets, from stock markets to real estate, are increasingly
subject to climate risks. Financialised climate governance (FCG)
puts investors and fund managers at the centre of efforts to limit
greenhouse gas emissions, which suggests both the promise and
peril of this advanced form of ‘climate capitalism’. We describe
these developments and point towards the peril that relying on
investors and business self-interest is unlikely to result in the
rapid structural shifts needed for full decarbonisation