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This volume examines in the industrialized nations the emerging role of banks, insurers and institutional investors as organisations for articulating and strengthening environmental law and policy. Taking a comparative perspective of practice in the European Union, North America, Japan and Australasia, the book argues that existing legal reforms to promote sustainable development are unlikely to be successful unless environmental policy can be diffused and embedded in the financial services sector. This sector plays a crucial role in creating the financial conditions that allow much economic development to proceed. Financial markets are already highly regulated in pursuance of various public policy objectives, and there is scope to adapt existing regulation to incorporate environmental aspects into the financial services sector. In terms of specific reforms, the book focuses on the role of corporate environmental reporting, economic instruments and liability rules to provide a proper context for engaging financial organisations with the environment, as well as reforms to the system of prudential regulation that currently governs this sector. Beyond the focus on the financial services sector, the book raises complex questions regarding the relationship between the state and market institutions in environmental policy, and should appeal to scholars from a wide range of disciplines interested in problems of environmental governance.
