The politics of climate financial risk

As election season hots up, I’m thinking quite a bit about politics.  Now I don’t expect climate-related financial risk to be high in the minds of US swing state voters.  True, the broader issue of climate change is on the radar screen, but not as prominently as many of us would like.

My aim today, though, is to talk about political ideology in the context of climate-related financial risk.  I’m not talking about the broader political question, i.e. should the government, in general, do more to address global warming?  I would argue that the answer to this is a resounding “yes!”  

Here, I want to focus specifically on the extent to which banks should be imposed upon to help fix the crisis and the exact nature of this imposition.  In other words, where does taking climate-related financial risk action fall on the political spectrum?  And to what extent does one’s beliefs on climate financial risk align with other political value dichotomies: capital versus labor, liberal versus conservative, etc cetra?

I was motivated to write on this topic following several interactions I’ve had with commenters over the years.  The internet is a brutal place and I’ve copped it from all sides.  We’re talking about the finance industry and environmentally focused investors here, so the trolls haven’t been that bad.  Nonetheless, I have been called a few names in my time.