Part I - Financial sector, regulation, supervision and sustainability: Rute Saraiva, ESG factors in pensions funds regulations: Why, how far have they gone, and what is the potential for improvement?.- Luciane Moessa, Benchmarking of national ESG banking regulations: State of art and remaining challenges.- Sofia Santos, The importance of practicality: The role of a transition green asset ratio for banks.- Miguel Morgado, EIB Group Climate Bank Roadmap 2021-2025.- Part II – Markets and Climate change: Ruthie Lazenby, Evaluating additionality analyses: California Cap and Trade and the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative.- Tatiana Falcão, Paying the piper: On the legal qualification of carbon prices.- Miguel Patrício, The Economics of adaptation to climate change and its main challenges.- Part III – Green public finance, budgeting and procurement: Paulo Alves Pardal, When climate change knocks on the finance minister's door.- Carlos Marinheiro, Amílcar do Rosário e Sousa and Ana Pinheiro, The climate dimension of fiscal policy sustainability: best practices in Green Budgeting and lessons for Portugal.- Pedro Infante, Government procurement and sustainable development in the WTO.- Part IV - Green taxes: Janet Milne, Environmental taxation and ESG: Silent Ppartners.- María Amparo Grau Ruiz, International fiscal cooperation to better integrate public and private efforts on sustainability: the case of carbon offset credits.- Karolina Tetlak, The Use of windfall taxes on the energy sector to support the green transition in the EU.- Filipe de Vasconcelos Fernandes, The European "fit for 55" package and the Portuguese tax benefits system – Prospective analysis and reform proposals.- André Alfar Rodrigues, "Fit for 55" – The EU plan for a green transition.- Solange Morais Juvandes, Jurisdictional assessment of environmental taxation.
Rute Saraiva is Assistant Professor at University of Lisbon, Law School. Rute is member of the Centre for Research on European, Economic, Financial and Tax Law (CIDEFF).
Paulo Alves Pardal is Assistant Professor at University of Lisbon, Law School. Paulo is member of CIDEFF – Research Center for European, Economic, Financial and Tax Law.
Sustainable (public and private) finance is closely interlinked with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). The latter focus on enhancing the protection of both social and environmental assets at the local and global level, from the real economy and everyday life to financial markets and public policies, thereby laying the groundwork for a transition. Global sustainability challenges – including climate change, natural resource depletion, and rising inequality – are affecting the commercial environment and real economy in a way that presents both risks and opportunities for the private and public financial sectors. On the one hand, policymakers and investors (including banks and pensions funds) are increasingly recognizing the environment’s implications for the financial sector through both physical and transitional risks, producing impacts on financial services and products, not to mention corporate governance. On the other hand, governments and European and international institutions are aware of their sustainability-related responsibilities and the consequences of their actions. Both regulate and supervise financial markets but also use their budgetary and tax policies (e.g. carbon tax) and their participation in financial markets (e.g. green bonds and development banks) to overcome sustainability challenges. Therefore, the objective of this book is to help readers understand how private and public financial systems can be modified to create better value for society through sustainable approaches and initiatives such as the integration of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in investment, procurement, and budgeting.