Legitimising and expanding financial accumulation: a critical political economy of financial reform in the UK in response to the climate crisis

使金融积累合法化并扩大金融积累：英国应对气候危机金融改革的关键政治经济学

• 批准号: 2760681
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: University of Manchester
• 依托单位国家: 英国
• 项目类别: Studentship
• 财政年份: 2022
• 资助国家: 英国
• 起止时间: 2022 至 无数据
• 项目状态: 未结题
• 来源: https://gtr.ukri.org/projects?ref=studentship-2760681
• 关键词: Legitimising; expanding; financial; accumulation; critical

Without urgent action, climate change will trigger a contraction in economic growth, rising inflation and financial instability (Crona et al., 2020). However, capitalist states are still not acting decisively to redirect financial flows towards the green transition (Paterson 2021). The concept of the structural power of finance provides one explanation for why states are prioritising short-term financial profits (Paterson 2012) over the long-term welfare of the planet. However, whilst this explanation accounts for the power that finance accrues through the financialisation of the economy, it obscures the equally crucial power that finance has acquired through the financialisation of statecraft (Karwowski 2019). As Braun (2020) argues, the use of financial markets as conduits for statecraft gives finance infrastructural power, that is it creates pressure for policy makers to preserve the vitality of securities markets. To analyse the importance of the infrastructural power of finance for the politics of green financial reform, I will investigate the political process through which public and private stakeholders cooperated and struggled to produce the UK's green finance framework. I will then investigate how these reforms have redrawn relations between public and private power in the political economy of decarbonisation in the UK.This research will investigate how the political dynamics played out between stakeholders in the financial reform process that began in the UK following the publication of the Clean Growth Strategy (2017), when the Green Finance Taskforce (GFT) (2018) was founded. The GFT called together powerful stakeholders in finance, including the Treasury, the Bank of England, and the City, as well as BEIS and DEFRA, alongside other private sector and civil society stakeholders (GFT 2018). These reforms avoid regulations to stringently penalise dirty assets, place faith in corporate disclosure of climate risks and net zero plans to alter financial flows, and restrict fiscal interventions so they are principally focused on de-risking assets to be funded predominantly on capital markets (HM GOV 2021). Expert commentators have already raised concerns about the efficacy of this strategy, calling for stronger regulations to devalue dirty assets, and greater public investment (Gabor et al., 2019). By investigating the political production of this outcome, This research will provide a deeper analysis of the constraints placed upon the British state's climate policy by its deep entanglement with financial markets. The British state has come to rely on financial markets to provide multiple public services and to deliver monetary and fiscal policy (Berry 2021; Dutta 2018; Walter, Wansleben 2020). To theorise the role of the infrastructural power of finance, I will combine this theory with neo-Gramscian theories of power (Cox 1981). This approach draws attention to the material pressures, ideational norms, and institutional hierarchies that are central to creating path-dependent pressure for governance to work through financial markets. This framework will be used to address two questions:1. How did the infrastructural power of finance shape the politics of green financial reform in the UK? 2. How have these financial reforms shaped the political economy of decarbonisation in the UK?

如果不采取紧急行动，气候变化将引发经济增长收缩、通货膨胀上升和金融不稳定（Crona等人，2020年）。然而，资本主义国家仍然没有采取果断行动，将资金流转向绿色转型（Paterson 2021）。金融的结构性权力的概念为为什么国家优先考虑短期财务利润（帕特森2012）而不是地球的长期福利提供了一种解释。然而，尽管这种解释解释了金融通过经济金融化所积累的力量，但它掩盖了金融通过治国术金融化所获得的同样重要的力量（Karwowski 2019）。正如Braun（2020）所指出的那样，利用金融市场作为治国之道，赋予了金融基础设施的力量，也就是说，它为政策制定者创造了保持证券市场活力的压力。为了分析金融的基础设施力量对绿色金融改革政治的重要性，我将研究公共和私人利益相关者合作并努力产生英国绿色金融框架的政治过程。然后，笔者将探讨这些改革如何在英国脱碳的政治经济学中重新定义公共权力和私人权力之间的关系。本研究将探讨自清洁增长战略（2017年）发布以来，在英国开始的金融改革过程中，利益相关者之间的政治动态是如何发挥作用的，当时绿色金融工作组（GFT）（2018年）成立。GFT召集了金融领域的强大利益相关者，包括财政部，英格兰银行和金融城，以及BEIS和DEFRA，以及其他私营部门和民间社会利益相关者（GFT 2018）。这些改革避免了严格惩罚肮脏资产的法规，相信企业披露气候风险和净零计划以改变资金流，并限制财政干预，因此它们主要集中在主要在资本市场上融资的去风险资产上（HM GOV 2021）。专家评论员已经对这一战略的有效性提出了担忧，呼吁加强监管以使肮脏资产贬值，并增加公共投资（Gabor等人，2019年）。通过调查这一结果的政治生产，这项研究将提供一个更深入的分析，其与金融市场的深度纠缠后，英国国家的气候政策的约束。英国政府已经开始依赖金融市场提供多种公共服务，并实施货币和财政政策（Berry 2021; Dutta 2018; Walter，Wansleben 2020）。为了从理论上解释金融基础设施权力的作用，我将把这一理论与新葛兰西权力理论（考克斯1981）结合起来。这种方法提请注意物质压力、观念规范和制度等级，这些是创造路径依赖压力的核心，使治理通过金融市场发挥作用。这个框架将被用来解决两个问题：1。金融的基础设施力量是如何塑造英国绿色金融改革的政治的？2.这些金融改革如何塑造了英国脱碳的政治经济学？