NEW PUBLICATION - The Great Dane @mathiaslarsen.bsky.social Larsen and I review the differing concepts of state-led approaches to the green transition over the past two decades. We attempt to provide some conceptual coherence to the debate. The article is Open Access.
Screenshot of the title page of linked article: "Noisy Politics, Quiet Technocrats: Strategic Silence by Central Banks" By Benjamin Braun and Maximilian Düsterhöft
🚨New article🚨 The consensus is that contestation pushed central banks to talk 𝘮𝘰𝘳𝘦 about inequality & climate.
Our theory: At first, CBs seek to ward off politicization by talking 𝘭𝘦𝘴𝘴 about controversial topics.
We tested this 𝐬𝐭𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐠𝐢𝐜 𝐬𝐢𝐥𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐡𝐲𝐩𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐬𝐢𝐬.🧵
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/...
New Publication - with my BlueSky absent friend James Silverwood we detail how renewable energy markets were created by the environmental state in the UK - journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/...
What does de-risked decarbonization mean for state capacity across sectors?
I am THRILLED that this article is now out in @ripejournal.bsky.social! 🔓
Current climate finance regimes lock in lopsided transitions - states need resources for unbankable transitions.
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
New (open access!) paper out now with Eric Helleiner and Hongying Wang in New Political Economy:
"A less reluctant (green) Atlas? Explaining the People’s Bank of China’s distinctive environmental shift"
1/ A brief thread 🧵
doi.org/10.1080/1356...
Mark Blyth and I sang a duet. It’s about how a country’s growth model shapes its state capacity to decarbonize - both the advantages and disadvantages. Enjoy! @ripejournal.bsky.social
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
The pervasive mispricing of climate risks are increasingly a threat to firms in the sector and to financial stability more broadly, giving greater impetus to questions of its climate scenario modelling, risk management strategies and governance.
There's more to come from us on this topic!
My co-author @james7jackson.bsky.social with a short blog for @cepi-cips.bsky.social on the looming climate-related risks and financial instability facing the insurance sector. Our recent work identifies 3 (or 4?) causes of "practical ignorance" when pricing in CRFR
www.cips-cepi.ca/2025/04/22/h...
Authors: Jacqueline Best, Matthew Paterson, Ilias Alami, Daniel Bailey, Sarah Bracking, Jeremy Green, Eric Helleiner, James Jackson, Paul Langley, Sylvain Maechler, John Morris, Stine Quorning, Adrienne Roberts, Jens van’t Klooster, Robert Watt and Stanley Wilshire. Abstract: In this article, we survey the literature on central bank action on climate change, focusing particularly on how the combined crises of COVID-19, inflation, and Ukraine have affected this action. We argue that the current situation is a critical juncture in which recent crises have created a highly indeterminate situation regarding what central banks might do regarding climate change. To date, some central banks have used these crises as opportunities for expanding their role while others have succumbed to pressure to withdraw from climate action. We explore three dynamics that generate this openness to various potential trajectories for climate action...
New article!
This review surveys the state of knowledge regarding central bank activity on climate change, and argues that there is considerable indeterminacy in the trajectory of this activity & its potential to contribute to effective climate action.
doi.org/10.1080/0964...
And another timely article in NPE from Ban & @jhasselbalch.bsky.social questions whether we need to transcend the Green State concept (too siloed?) and focus instead on a ‘green economic planning’ agenda!
www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....
It also draws on another @bjpir.bsky.social article by myself and @james7jackson.bsky.social
journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
It draws on @matpaterson.bsky.social wonderful recent book In Search For Climate Politics
www.cambridge.org/core/books/i...
It was a real pleasure to work with @james7jackson.bsky.social and @matpaterson.bsky.social on this article!
Our findings demonstrate the diversity of views within the British state on the complexity of protecting CBI in the midst of the intensifying contradictions and strategic dilemmas related to climate governance and climate change.
This article explores these dual dynamics within the Bank of England as seen by insiders, and finds differing accounts that are refracted through differing understandings of politics and the Bank's existing political status.
The article finds that new green objectives can depoliticise prior forms of mission creep whilst simultaneously licensing new internal debates on further institutional evolutions that could be repoliticising.
Central Banks are increasingly between a rock and a hard place on this issue, as both action and inaction in the context of new green objectives and escalating climate risks present significant challenges to their apolitical & technocratic reputations.