Tackling Climate Change through the Financial Sector: Teaching Regulatory Challenges

Over the past few years a new ‘subdiscipline’ has started to develop – so-called ‘Green finance’, and also ‘green risk’. The possibility of reaching climate goals through the financial
sector and particularly through the regulation of the financial sector, has also become more evident and more attractive. Increasingly financial regulators have become active in the field
of climate change, including central banks. Central bankss are of course primarily known for monetary policy (interest rate setting), for money and payment system regulation and oversight, and over the past 20 years, for financial stability. These regulatory roles of the central bank are core components in the teaching of the subject Banking and Finance Law. Teaching the regulators, and regulatory theory, especially at undergraduate level, can be difficult. So, what if, instead of starting with broad regulatory theory and a diagram of the Australian financial regulators, and an overview of their various statutory foundations, I were to start
my class next semester with the following question: How can the Reserve Bank of Australia legally tackle climate change?