Date/Time Date(s) - 21/10/20253:00 pm - 4:00 pm
Thomas Marois is the Tier 1 Canada Research Chair in Public Banking for Sustainability, Inclusion, and Prosperity; Professor of Political Economy; and Director of the Public Banking Project at McMaster University. He is a leading global scholar of public banks, focused on public-public collaborations for the financing of green and just transitions.
Thomas is author of the award-winning 2021 book Public Banks: Decarbonisation, Definancialisation, and Democratisation (Cambridge University Press) and co-editor of two recent books on public banks and public water. He hosts the Finance in Common System Global Research Network ‘PDB Academic’ at the Public Banking Project. Thomas is also an Associate Director of the Municipal Services Project, a global network of researchers investigating public alternatives. a Professorial Research Associate at the Centre for Sustainable Finance, SOAS University of London, and a Fellow of the Transnational Institute, Amsterdam.
In this talk, Professor Thomas Marois, Canada Research Chair in Public Banking, reflects on the Fourth UN International Conference on Financing for Development (FfD4) that concluded in July in Sevilla, Spain. FfD4 resulted in the Sevilla Commitment or Compromiso de Sevilla. The Sevilla Commitment, signed by UN Member States, less the United States, is a negotiated document that ostensibly ‘aims to boost investment in sustainable development, address the debt crisis afflicting many of the world’s poorest countries, and give developing countries a stronger voice in the international financing architecture’. Through the lens of public banks and a public pathway to financing global green and just transitions, Prof. Marois will reflect on the FfD4 process, the FfD4 Conference, and the FfD4 outcome document – the Sevilla Commitment. In it, public development banks have received unprecedented support by UN Member States. However, the struggle over who benefits from public banks has only intensified as private investors seek to bend public bank capacity to private purposes. Academics, students, researchers, policymakers, CSOs, and trade unions must fight to protect a pro-public future.
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