Description
The last decade has seen a proliferating debate on green finance amongst both academics and practitioners. The issue of green finance lies at the intersection of three key topics in political economy: climate change, financialization, and the return of the state. From that, green finance is part of a plurality of ‘green’ interpretations of long-standing analytical subjects, be it green industrial policy, green central banking, green developmentalism, or the green state. Here, we argue that green finance can be understood through the lens of ‘financialized planning,’ and that doing so provides conceptual coherence that ties surrounding literature together. What we term ‘green financial planning’ captures how states’ use of various policy tools exercise planning an economic transition, such as central banking, industrial policy, and financial regulations. Rather than merely assets bearing green labels, green finance understood in this way provides insights into how differing state-capital relationships shape progress on greening financial systems differently across countries, including the state-driven approach in China and de-risking approach in the US. Our intention is that this contributes a common basis through political economy scholarship can approach the plurality of topical debates surrounding green finance
