Achieving the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, including those relating to the climate crisis, will be vital for both Canada and the Caribbean.
Policymakers should repurpose public banks to work together globally and nationally so climate finance can be policy-driven and public rather than profit-driven and private, McMaster researcher Thomas Marois says.
BY CHRIS PICKLES, FACULTY OF SOCIAL SCIENCES
McMaster University
APRIL 24, 2024
Public banks are crucial for financing the United Nations 2030 Sustainable Development Goals at the pace, scale, and on the terms needed for just transitions, a McMaster researcher says.
“To date, policymakers have not made sufficient use of already existing and powerful climate finance resources that are public,” says Thomas Marois, professor of political economy in the Department of Political Science at McMaster.
Marois is also director of the Public Banking Project, a McMaster-based initiative that explores the important roles public banks play in achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).
Right now, there is a collective failure to finance the fight against the global climate crisis, Marois warns.
That’s because of an over-reliance on the belief that private finance will meet key climate goals, even though it consistently underperforms, he says. Instead, policy makers need to seriously reconsider the role of public banks.
The Public Banking Project explores the important roles that public banks already play in combatting the climate crisis.
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Read the full story on the McMaster University website.
More on The Public Banking Project
The Public Banking Project is a first-of-its-kind initiative, created with the intention of excavating the exciting world of public banks. Why? Because there is no pathway to global green and just transitions that will not pass through public banks. But for whose benefit? We are a collective of researchers from around the world committed to advancing pro-public alternatives. Public banks can have a catalytic effect on sustainable and inclusive futures, but only if society holds these powerful public financial institutions accountable.