Preface

Sergio Scandizzo and Tony Hughes

Since the 1920s, it has become increasingly obvious that emissions resulting from human economic activity are causing the world to get hotter. These increased temperatures have been predicted with remarkable accuracy by climatologists since at least the 1970s. If emissions continue to be produced at the current rate, these scientists are confident that temperatures will climb further, making extreme weather-related events more likely and rendering some heavily populated areas of the globe inhospitable to human habitation. In more recent times, we have seen more coordinated and concerted action from governments to realign economies to net zero targets in a bid to bring global temperatures under control.

In the midst of these conditions, both historical and prospective, the global financial system has generally waxed and occasionally waned. Since global warming was first suspected, banks and insurers have continued to operate their businesses, and many have been highly profitable and some have failed. We have experienced big corporate bankruptcies and a handful of financial crises, some of which have had devastating economic consequences on a global scale. Some banks have been bailed