10. Conclusion

Looking into the rear-view mirror does not tell us where we are heading. The Anthropocene era is unlike anything we are familiar with from the past, and so too are the measures that will be needed to finance it. And we have to think outside of the box and dare to do things we have not done before. If we want to change the world for the better, we need above all to look at the monetary and financial system underpinning our real economic activities. And this transformation we are going through will not come for free; multiple asymmetric shocks will add several additional layers of costs to our day-to-day hazards and challenges. Traditional ways of financing, including taxation schemes, borrowing money from the capital market, private investments and philanthropy, are a good thing but too low in volume, too slow and too imprecisely targeted to finance our future. Traditionally, finance drives sustainability. But it should be the other way round. We need to devise sophisticated forms of financial engineering to secure our common future.