No.245 Seminar ： Finance in nature and the nature of finance: Understanding the limits and possibilities of transition finance in the Asia Pacific
- Julie Ann de los Reyes Assistant Professor, Center for Southeast Asian Studies
- 2024/03/19 4:45pm
- Research Administration Building, Basement Floor (Conference Rooms 1&2) and Zoom
- English
- Onsite, Zoom
Summary
The growing significance of finance in contemporary society is evident in its expanded role in the transformation of the natural realm. In the context of pressing environmental challenges — from climate change to biodiversity loss–the mobilization of green finance has increasingly been positioned as a solution to avert ecological breakdown. In this presentation, I situate myHakubiproject on financing the low-carbon transition in existing research, highlighting the shortcomings of current literature and dominant theoretical frameworks at grasping finance-transition dynamics in the Asia Pacific, most pronounced in the case of non-traditional market economies. Differing government-finance-industry configurations, risk/return criteria, and geopolitical considerations mediate the direction of green investments in distinctive and important ways. Attention to this difference, I argue, could lead to a more nuanced understanding of the possibilities and challenges of reconciling finance with environmental objectives and its implications for transition in the world’s most carbon intensive region.