Climate Finance and its Governance 外文翻译啊.docVIP

Climate Finance and its Governance: Moving to a Low Carbon Economy through Socially Responsible Financing? I. INTRODUCTION To what extent, and how, can financial markets contribute to climate policy goals? Amidst the mounting international urgency to combat global warming, the financial sector has become an increasingly prominent stakeholder. The Kyoto Protocol’s inclusion of various economic mechanisms to achieve cost effective reductions of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions, created a framework for financial institutions such as banks and pension funds to play a seminal role in the transition to a low carbon economy. They would be able to act as brokers for carbon trading, and as financiers for clean development and climate adaptation. Until recently, however, another role of financial markets has been somewhat overlooked in the climate policy debates. It is the movement for socially responsible investment (SRI). Rather than limiting financial institutions to mere transactional agents in climate finance, SRI envisions a much more active and enlightened role for them. Traditionally, SRI has expected financiers to act as ethical investors, who priorities socially just and ecologically sustainable development over the maximisation of financial returns .In other words, the financial sector should act in the public interest rather than merely for its own economic self-interest. By this approach, SRI promises a radical path to a low carbon world, whereby the financial sector may exploit its economically strategic position to leverage positive changes in corporate behavior. If successful, SRI can overcome the limitations and gaps in official climate regulation by pushing for early corporate action to reduce GHG emissions. However, SRI is not a textbook manual for social responsibility, but rather a fluid discourse open to diverse interpretations and practices. In recent years, particularly since 2000, that discourse has changed profoundly. Many SRI actors have jettisoned