10 recommendations for how Ministries of Finance can drive and shape the low-carbon transition
How can European finance ministries drive and shape the transition to a low-carbon society? This has been the focus of a major international study at Oxford Smith's School of Enterprise and the Environment, in collaboration with the Swedish Energy Agency.
Ministries of Finance have a pivotal role in unlocking the required investments and innovations to change the current system and achieve net zero. In the report "The role of Ministries of Finance in driving and shaping the low-carbon energy transition", scholars have explored tools and philosophies used at finance ministries in Sweden, Finland and Great Britain, including input from policy experts like Nobel Laureate Joseph Stiglitz and Professor Mariana Mazzucato, among others. This has resulted in ten recommendations for policy development that can drive climate innovation.
10 recommendations for policy development
- Raise domestic public R&D budgets for clean energy innovation
- Scale full range of public investment institutions to provide capital across innovation phases
- Mainstream green public procurement to create niche markets
- Increase fiscal space by reorganising the subsidy plot
- Broaden tax base as revenues from carbon-intensive techs decline
- Crowd in private investment by mainstreaming green financial instruments
- Ensure and equitable transition at national and global levels
- Complement cost-benefit methods with systematic transition methods
- Mainstream and scale a mission-led approach
- Boost coordination domestically and internationally
