Green has always been the favourite colour of bankers, so it is hardly surprising that the incorporation of environmental externalities into the framework of financial markets has helped to make the environment a preferred area of interest for bankers today.
Bankers active in the red-hot green markets such as carbon trading, emission credits and renewable energy are unashamedly talking about their enthusiasm for these essentially environmental efforts in terms of “arbitrage opportunities” and “PR value” but the amoral nature of their motivations is unimportant.
What is important is that the experiment of internalizing environmental externalities through the creation of markets is off to a promising start and that incentives for change are taking root in the financial system, from where they can spread to other areas of the economy.
Rather than being seen as a costly drag on Europe’s economy that other major economies can take advantage of by avoiding, Europe’s lead in the creation of these markets through its emissions trading scheme is increasingly being seen by bankers, if not yet by factory owners and politicians, as an advantage. European economies are also benefiting from the creation of new green industries involving cutting-edge high-technology firms that bankers and venture capitalists are only too pleased to fund and that are developing into world leaders thanks to generous subsidies.
The profitability of these still immature and somewhat opaque markets is turning the financial institutions that are benefiting them into some of the most influential advocates for the introduction of similar schemes in other markets, such as the US and Australia.
Bankers can be powerful friends to have on your side and increasingly bankers are turning into the environment’s best friend. So what if the environment has to pay them for it.
