CORY REYNOLDS | DATE 1/21/2021

A much-needed primer on sustainable finance in the age of COVID-19

As a new administration enters Washington with controlling COVID-19, restoring a healthy economy and addressing climate change three of its highest priorities, we are pleased to announce Financing Our Common Future In the Time of COVID-19, Lars Müller Publishers' fascinating new blueprint for sustainable finance now. Starting with the advent of the pandemic in March 2020, this volume takes on complex, potentially overwhelming economic concepts and conveys explanations and solutions via super-clear and accessible illustrations like the three that are featured here. "So what is the challenge for this book," noted French economist Régis Marodon asks? "Its aim is to decipher the workings of finance so that we can take action as intelligently as possible. By gaining deeper insights into how these mechanisms work, rather than relying on misguided and hastily formed biases, we will be better able to demand that financial players help to further the transition towards a more sustainable and more equitable world. For, indeed, the situation is worrying. At environmental level, given climate change, the loss of biodiversity and natural spaces, ocean pollution and resource depletion, each of us is increasingly aware that, failing a radical break, a transition is vital. At societal level, inequalities, the fear of the other, population growth, distrust of elites and the world’s shifting balances of power all heighten the risk of devastating conflict. Each day the long term draws closer, and a common, constructive and positive project is now needed so that everyone can get down to work. It is vital that we move beyond isolated actions when tackling problems of planetary proportions. The world needs to have possible solutions in sight, as well as actors capable of embodying new forms of collective action, bolstering multilateralism, to create a sense of optimism and a positive momentum in the direction of sustainability. This shows us that by becoming aware that the interests of humanity are tightly bound up with the preservation of the planet, the financial world can help to make a difference and, together with the economic actors of the transition, contribute to the emergence of a more sustainable and more inclusive world."