From Red to Green?: How the Financial Credit Crunch Could Bankrupt the Environment

Written by an economist and an investment professional, this book addresses the twin crises that the world is facing in the form of a simultaneous financial and environmental credit crunch. Financially, consumers are less able to consume now, and pay later. Environmentally, we may have already reached our credit limit and the bill for past financial and environmental consumption is falling due.

Whether the financial credit crunch constrains consumers in a way that will be environmentally supportive, naturally slowing the consumption of finite resources, or hinders any effective resolution of the environmental credit crunch is of crucial importance. Policy responses to the financial crisis are likely to be constrained by the political need to support the economic status quo, and when combined with a global reduction in available investment capital there are serious challenges ahead if the economic and environmental damage of the environmental credit crunch is to be minimised.

This book asks whether financial crunch-induced changes in consumer behaviour will be enough to avoid, or reduce, the environmental crunch many believe is just round the corner. Donovan and Hudson combine their respective economic and environmental perspectives to address this key question, reviewing this 'tale of two crunches' from the perspective of different economic sectors. The answer to the conundrum this book poses may lie in the only unlimited resource on the planet - human ingenuity.

Paul Donovan is a Managing Director and Global Economist at UBS. Paul is responsible for formulating and presenting the UBS Investment Research global economic view, drawing on the bank's world-wide resources. He co-authors the Global Economic Perspectives publication with the other members of the Global Economics team and has focused in recent years on income inequality, monetary union and currencies, government policy, and monetary economics.

Julie Hudson, CFA, is a Managing Director at UBS, where she heads up the new Socially Responsible Investment effort established by UBS within its Equity Research division at the end of 2004. The team launched UBS publications on climate change in 2007, on corporate governance in 2008, and on ESG (environmental social and governance issues) and their impact on competitive markets in 2010.