There is reason to believe that financial markets, in pursuit of short-term goals, undervalue environmental resources, discount the future, and favour accounting and reporting systems that do not reflect environmental risks and opportunities. Companies outside the financial sector that use natural resources and cause pollution have had to grapple with environment and sustainability issues longer than those companies in the financial community. It may now be the financial sector's turn to face the threat of various types of environment-related liabilities.
Largely descriptive rather than prescriptive, Financing Change is the first study to examine questions that will become increasingly important as populations burgeon and the developing countries enter financial markets.