Park Jacob
University of Johannesburg, Johannesburg, South Africa.
Castleton University, Castleton, VT USA.
J Environ Stud Sci. 2022;12(1):91-99. doi: 10.1007/s13412-021-00715-z. Epub 2021 Aug 21.
Despite the heightened attention to climate change and sustainable development initiatives by governments, civil society groups, and private companies in the USA and worldwide, the international community is confronted with a question that has existed since the 1992 Earth Summit: how can we pay for it all? To better understand this climate change and sustainable development goals (SDGs) funding dilemma, there needs to be greater clarity around four climate change investment and finance-related questions that are frequently absent or inadequately addressed in the academic and policy literature. Firstly, what are or should be the boundaries of climate change investment and finance when the problem of climate change becomes impossible to separate from biodiversity, land use management, and other dilemmas related to the broader SDGs? Secondly, how we should define and what constitutes "adequate" financial resources to address the climate change and SDGs dilemmas on the global level? Thirdly, why is it important to close the gap between climate change adaptation and mitigation funding levels? Finally, what role should the private sector and business actors play in terms of climate change investment and finance issues? In addition to achieving greater clarity around these four issue areas, I argue in this article that three questions are likely to shape the future success (or failure) of the global climate change investment and finance architecture. One, what is likely path of the United Nations as a global climate change/sustainability governance institution? Two, will the emerging Green New Deal model in the USA and in other countries actually materialize? Three, what is the future outlook for "market-fixing" sustainability-driven enterprises?
尽管美国及全球的政府、民间社会团体和私人公司对气候变化和可持续发展倡议的关注度不断提高，但国际社会仍面临着一个自1992年地球峰会以来就存在的问题：我们如何为这一切买单？为了更好地理解这种气候变化和可持续发展目标（SDGs）的资金困境，需要更明确四个与气候变化投资和融资相关的问题，而这些问题在学术和政策文献中常常缺失或讨论不足。首先，当气候变化问题与生物多样性、土地利用管理以及与更广泛的可持续发展目标相关的其他困境无法分离时，气候变化投资和融资的范围是什么，或者应该是什么？其次，我们应该如何定义以及什么构成了在全球层面应对气候变化和可持续发展目标困境的“充足”财政资源？第三，缩小气候变化适应和减缓资金水平之间的差距为何重要？最后，私营部门和商业行为体在气候变化投资和融资问题上应发挥什么作用？除了在这四个问题领域实现更大的清晰度外，我在本文中认为，有三个问题可能会塑造全球气候变化投资和融资架构未来的成功（或失败）。其一，联合国作为全球气候变化/可持续发展治理机构可能会走怎样的道路？其二，美国和其他国家正在兴起的绿色新政模式是否真的会实现？其三，“修复市场”的可持续发展驱动型企业的未来前景如何？
