"Après nous, le déluge" towards a shock theory of Islamic green finance

Abstract

International audience ; Despite considerable progress in the ratification and implementation of the 2030 United Nations Sustainable Development Agenda (SDG Agenda) and Paris Agreement under the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (Paris Agreement) since 2015 the world has not committed enough resources to implement these two strategic agendas for humanity and achieve their crucial targets for the development of current and future generations. As the COVID-19 global pandemics started unfolding at the beginning of 2020, both the Paris Agreement and the 2030 Agenda were not on the track, and this was attributed to a large extent to the significant funding gaps for both agendas, especially for the most vulnerable countries. On the other hand, the recent economic crises (COVID-19 pandemics, 2008 global financial crisis) have profoundly disrupted the global economy and demonstrated the heightened vulnerability of the global financial and economic system to climate, health, financial or socioeconomic risks. Geopolitical events further challenged the foundations of the global financial architecture, in particular, due to unprecedented sanctions against Russia in the United States, the European Union, and allies, and the unexpected response of Russian authorities to these sanctions. In this context, the world is perceived as even more exposed in the short-term future to a major crisis, potentially far more reaching than the 2008 global financial crisis, a crisis that will arguably determine the fate of most vulnerable nations in the next decades. In this dual context of failed achievement of global agendas and heightened risks of major global financial shock, this paper addresses the positioning and potential evolution of the Islamic finance (IF) sector. In particular, the paper posits that despite solid growth in the last four decades, IF institutions have not adopted a clear strategy with regards to rapidly aligning with SDG and climate action agendas, or developing relevant mechanisms and policies ...