Imagining a sustainable financial system allows us to move beyond conventional wisdom. Imagining a Sustainable Financial System sets out that a sustainable financial system would be one that serves the long-term needs of a healthy real economy, an economy that provides decent, productive and rewarding livelihoods for all, and ensures that the natural environment on which we all depend remains intact, and so able to support the needs of this and future generations.
It offers a framework for considering the performance of a sustainable financial based on two axes, its impact on social and environmental systems (‘sustainability impacts’) and its own sustainability in the face of exogenous shocks induced by these factors.
This paper was presented at the UNEP Inquiry/Centre for International Governance Innovation Academic Symposium on the Design of a Sustainable Financial System, held in Waterloo Canada in December 2014.