Link to downloadable PDF: Working paper on Mapping the Governance of Financial Flows: Institutions, Networks and Implications for the Climate Action
By Olga Mikheeva (CBS), Eleni Tsingou (CBS)
Global financial flows represent one of the key components of our economic systems owing to continuous globalization of trade and liberalisation of financial regulation. These developments resulted in recurring financial crises and financial stability got elevated to the very top of policy agenda, both nationally and among multilateral institutions. Financial policy domain is often characterised by ‘closed’ policy circles and ‘club-like’ communities that set international standards and best practices that govern financial flows.
The governance of financial flows is made up of a mix of formal and less formal institutions with various decision-making mechanisms, as well as a plethora of private groupings which provide expertise, representation, advocacy, and infrastructure. These institutions operate transnationally, that is their members and constituencies can be found across levels and institution types; they are involved in multilateral, intergovernmental, and supranational modes of governance with continuous interactions and feedback loops between private and public policy actors.
With the more recent rise of ‘green finance’, financial flows have been described as an important enabling element of the green transition. Starting with the Paris Agreement, the policy task of ‘aligning’ finance with the climate goals has been part of climate action worldwide and particularly in the EU.
In this working paper we provide an overview of key actors in the governance of financial flows with varying degrees of formalization of structures, representation, and interest in operationalizing or reforming international policy practice. We then consider how the EU (as a supranational body as well as through its Member States) is involved and how climate-related aspects of finance feature in the work of these transnational actors. There is a lot of intersection of workstreams between a number of these organisations – particularly in the growing area of green finance and climate-related aspects of financial regulation and investments.
