Watch the webinar: Anti-Inflation Policy, Green Finance, and the Climate Crisis

In 2009, a paper in Nature attempted to calculate how much of the world’s reserves of oil, gas, and coal would have to stay in the ground to hold rates of climate change to tolerable levels. Financiers and investors quickly realized the shattering implications: Companies and countries that thought they were sitting on the energy equivalent of goldmines were likely really holding worthless stranded assets. 

​Soon a lively discussion started over the role central banks and financial regulators should play in making companies and countries acknowledge the reality of the climate crisis. But this discussion occurred in a long period of very low-interest rates. The recent turn to much higher interest rates by central banks to combat inflation along with a renewed emphasis on reining in government spending are now combining with a swing in policy toward LNG by the United States and other countries to bring climate policy to a fateful crossroads. 

​This talk outlines what is at stake.  

Our speaker: 

Thomas Ferguson is Director of Research at the Institute for New Economic Thinking, Senior Fellow at Better Markets, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Massachusetts, Boston. He received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and taught formerly at MIT and the University of Texas, Austin. He is the author or coauthor of several books, including Golden Rule (University of Chicago Press, 1995) and Right Turn (Hill & Wang, 1986). His articles have appeared in many scholarly journals, including the Quarterly Journal of Economics, the Journal of Economic History, International Organization, and International Studies Quarterly. He is Contributing Editor to The Nation and a member of the editorial board of the International Journal of Political Economy. 

Moderator:

Mario Seccareccia is Professor Emeritus of the Department of Economics at the University of Ottawa, where he taught full-time since 1978 courses in macroeconomics, monetary theory, history of economic thought, labour economics, and economic history, among others, until his retirement in 2018. He is author to some 130 academic titles in scholarly journals or book chapters; he has also authored or edited a dozen books. Furthermore, he is editor or co-editor of approximately 50 special issues of journals on numerous themes in political economy. He has ben visiting professor at various universities in France (Université de Bourgogne, Université de Grenoble, Université Paris 13, and Université Paris-Sud) and Mexico (National Autonomous University of Mexico). Research Associate at the Canadian Center for Policy Alternatives and, since 2004, editor of the International Journal of Political Economy, an interdisciplinary journal published by Taylor & Francis focused on national and International Policy issues. Winner of the 2021 John Kenneth Galbraith Prize in Economics from the Progressive Economics Forum. He holds a doctorate in economics from McGill University. 

Our Host

Susan Tanner, L.L.B., M.E.S., L.L.M While holding senior positions in both Federal and Ontario governments Susan has maintained an active role in the non-profit community. In 1982, Susan was the founding chairperson of LEAF (Legal Education and Action Fund) to promote the rights of women under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In 1995, Friends of the Earth (FoE) Canada accepted a UN Environmental Prize for work on the Montreal Protocol under her leadership. Susan continues to be actively involved with organizations such as Ottawa Renewable Energy Coop, Women for Nature (Nature Canada), and Group of 78.