Global green finance and sustainability: Insights for progressive strategies

Abstract

Green finance has been increasingly presented as being an effective solution to global environmental problems and climate change. However, todays global financial structures tend to reproduce global inequalities and contribute to continued, highly unequal over-use and destruction of the environment, as well as a global ecological crisis. This paper introduces the topic with a specific emphasis on green finance, and provides an overview of the contributions to this special issue on Global Finance and Socio-Ecological Transformation. We discuss the implications of global green finance and propose a typology that differentiates between neoliberal, reformist and progressive transformative types of green finance. Based on this, we present insights for progressive strategies and policies for financing a socio-ecological transformation towards global sustainable welfare.