Climate Change and Financial Instability: Risk Disclosure and the Problematics of Neoliberal Governance. Issue 5 (3rd September 2017)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Christophers, Brett
• Is Part Of: Annals of the American Association of Geographers. Volume 107:Issue 5(2017)
• Page Start: 1108
• Page End: 1127
• Publication Date: 2017-09-03
• Subjects: climate change -- financial risk -- financial stability -- governance -- neoliberalism; 气候变迁 -- 金融风险 -- 金融稳定 -- 治理 -- 新自由主义。; cambio climático -- riesgo financiero -- estabilidad financiera -- gobernanza -- neoliberalismo; Geography -- Periodicals; Environmental sciences -- Periodicals; Geography; Electronic journals; Periodicals; 550
• DOI: 10.1080/24694452.2017.1293502
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 2469-4452

Abstract

Abstract : In recent years, climate change has increasingly come to be seen as one of the principal threats to future global financial stability. This article identifies and critiques the emerging consensus among international financial regulators as to how this threat—the key perceived components of which are also delineated—can best be managed. It shows that the preferred approach mirrors hegemonic postfinancial crisis regulatory practice vis-à-vis financial stability risk more generically: prioritization of market discipline underpinned by risk disclosure. The article characterizes this approach as a quintessentially neoliberal modality of governance. It also argues that insofar as this approach relies on financial market workings and financial institutional behaviors explicitly belied by the financial crisis, it risks precisely the type of "climate Minsky moment" regulators aim to avoid.