There is enough money in the world both to stop climate breakdown and meet all human needs. But it tends to be in the wrong hands, or is spent on the wrong things.
In recent years, however, it’s been shown that huge sums of money can be found by governments overnight, or created, when they think something is important enough. Once hard-set policies can change just as quickly. Both happened after the banking crisis of 2007-2008, with trillions, globally, used to stimulate economies and save the financial system.
Innovative ways are emerging everywhere to fund fair and rapid low-carbon transition. From bond issues for community-based, small- and medium-scale renewable energy projects, to new financial institutions to support new large-scale, low-carbon infrastructure, people are finding the money to make rapid transition possible. More and faster is needed, and how it should be directed is a crucial question for all, but momentum is growing.
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Story of change
Iceland – independent economic policy, holding finance accountable and experimenting with local democracyIn 2019 Iceland is in the news for erecting a memorial plaque to its glacier, known as Okjökull, or Ok, which shrank so much due to the raised temperatures...
Story of change
Transition Towns – the quiet, networked revolutionThe Transition Network began in 2006 in the small rural UK town of Totnes, Devon. It was initially a response to the twin threats of climate change and peak...
Story of change
How learning to share again cuts waste, and makes more resilient communitiesSharing is one of the very first things we are taught to do as children, it’s almost the defining difference between being ‘good’ or seen as selfish....
Story of change
Banking for good: trust, transition and the return of public banksEcological and economic crises are calling private banks into question, and proving a catalyst to a new wave of public banks. Plans to make rapid transition...
Story of change
Migrants welcome – how international hospitality in a warming world benefits everyoneMany millions more people will be forced to flee their homes in a world experiencing climate breakdown. Some will move within national borders, many others...
Story of change
Dethroning king coal – how a once dominant fuel source is falling rapidly from favourElectricity fuelled by coal is experiencing a record decline. 2019 is expected to show the biggest fall yet, after decades of increases. An accelerated move...
Story of change
The ‘instant’ local economy – how communities saved themselves when mainstream economics failed in ArgentinaArgentina is again in the grips of an economic crisis – with debt and default with the International Monetary Fund looming over the country. It all seems...
Commentary
The business of rapid transitionBusiness represents the great paradox of rapid transition. On the one hand, much is expected of business in terms of technological innovation, new models of...
Story of change
Converting industry – how rapid transition happens in crises and upheavalsA brewer of ‘craft’ beer starts making sanitising hand gel and a car manufacturer converts one of its factories so it can make medical face masks. Just...
