Sustainable finance
Public Finance
The raising and spending of public money — budgets, taxes, subsidies and public investment — as a decisive lever for or against sustainability.
Definition
Public finance encompasses the revenue, expenditure, borrowing and guarantees of the state: taxation, budget allocations, subsidies, public procurement spending, sovereign debt and the operations of state-owned financial institutions. In sustainability terms it determines the fiscal signals economies run on — whether public money accelerates the transition or subsidises the status quo, notably through fossil fuel subsidies measured in the hundreds of billions annually.
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