ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the 'greening of finance' before moving on to look at the immediate future and considers how prices might reflect sustainability. The ubiquity of 'prices' can often obscure the complexity of the processes which produce them. Prices are only generated when property rights are exchanged. For much of the biosphere—'the environment'—there exists no property rights which can be exchanged. Sea, air, rivers, wilderness, deserts, rain-forests, species, habitat, and their like are not, in general, 'owned', and therefore their use cannot be reflected in price. The rapid expansion in general concern for the environment has generated a steady growth in attempts to begin the process of incorporating the environment into prices. In the short term, price may be greened and may provide positive benefits to the cause of environmental protection. The growth of ethical and, in particular, environmental investment funds raises interesting possibilities in this area.
