Dr. Nicola Ranger, University of Oxford

Abstract:
Eighty years ago in 1944, on the eve of the end of World War II, world leaders came together in Bretton Woods USA with the shared ambition to shape a new global financial and monetary system that would ensure the economic stability and development necessary to avoid future crises and wars. The systems and institutions that emerged – including the World Bank and the IMF – helped shape economic history from then on and presided over an unprecedented period of growth and poverty alleviation around the world. Arguably however, they also presided (and some authors would argue contributed to) a period of unprecedented environmental damage and biodiversity loss. Nature was not on the agenda in 1944. It is today. In this talk – almost exactly two years after the signing of the Global Biodiversity Framework and with only six years to go to meet its 2030 targets – I will discuss how the global financial system needs to evolve to address the combined global challenges of biodiversity loss and climate change. I will particularly focus on the role of the World Bank, IMF and Central Banks. I will propose that the World Bank – as the only global financial institution with the explicit mandate, financial firepower and convening power to address these global challenges – has a particularly important role to play and draw upon both research and my own experience to propose solutions. I’ll argue for why we need to power up our public financial institutions, including reforming our development finance architecture. I’ll also argue for why the IMF and Central Banks need to do more to explicitly recognise the systemic risks from biodiversity loss across their operations and policies. A theme throughout the talk will be on the role of data, analytics and modelling in underpinning and informing action, giving examples from my own research, as well as discuss the new frontiers of research required in order to place nature at the heart of global finance and governance.