Retail Sovereign Green, Social, Sustainability and Sustainability-Linked Bonds as Public Finance Tools Implementing Environmental Constitutionalism

forthcoming

Future generations and youth inherit at least two debts (with incoming crises attached). The first incoming crisis results from the accumulation of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. This climate crisis requires taking steps to mitigate it and adapt to its consequences. Those mitigation and adaptation efforts have even been quantified. The global investment gap for climate change mitigation is estimated at $380-680 trillion annually. Moreover, a further $60-100 trillion must be additionally invested into climate change adaptation measures (annually!). Those two investment gaps need to be filled with private and public investments. The second incoming crisis results from the constant accumulation (up to now) of public debt - the sovereign debt crisis. Future generations will live in democratic states overburdened with debt – and current youth already does. Most democratic states already have debts of 60%, 100%, 150%, or even more of their annual gross domestic product (GDP). However, this mixture of those two incoming crises with massive funding needs for climate change mitigation and adaptation measures significantly limits future generations in their activities and their (financial) options. The same limitations affect governments in jurisdictions where future generations will live. Meanwhile, climate change and environmental damage are legacies of our civilisation. Tackling those challenges requires undertaking financial efforts both at a global level and by particular states. ReGreenConstition's objective is to verify whether citizens could help in overcoming this zugzwang through new types of bonds (Green, Social, Sustainability and Sustainability-Linked Bonds). By combining different research disciplines (law, economics) and relying on a deep interdisciplinary methodology, the project will allow designing new policy and legal frameworks facilitating citizens to “vote” with their savings on climate change mitigation and adaptation measures.