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Over with carbon? Investors' reaction to the Paris Agreement and the US withdrawal

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Abstract

How financial investors may react to policy events related to sustainability and climate change mitigation in particular, is a key question with implications for sustainable finance and financial stability. We address this question by carrying out a multi-period difference-in-difference approach on a confidential database of securities holdings of the European Central Bank, and we provide evidence of several effects related to the Paris Agreement. In aggregate, investors reduced their exposure to carbon-intensive assets in response to the agreement, and the trend reverted after the US withdrawal announcement. However, the reaction varies across categories and geographies of the securities holders, their ownership size, and the emissions of owned firms. In particular, transition risk has been taken up by less regulated financial institutions and the BRIC countries. Our results highlight that the redirection of global financial flows towards climate action requires clear and unanimous signals from the global community of policy makers.

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  • Alessi, Lucia & Battiston, Stefano & Kvedaras, Virmantas, 2021. "Over with carbon? Investors' reaction to the Paris Agreement and the US withdrawal," Working Papers 2021-12, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    • Handle: RePEc:jrs:wpaper:202112
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    2. Alessi, Lucia & Elisa, Ossola & Panzica, Roberto, 2021. "When do investors go green? Evidence from a time-varying asset-pricing model," Working Papers 2021-13, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
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    Cited by:

    1. Alessi, Lucia & Elisa, Ossola & Panzica, Roberto, 2021. "When do investors go green? Evidence from a time-varying asset-pricing model," Working Papers 2021-13, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    2. Nguyen, Quyen & Diaz-Rainey, Ivan & Kuruppuarachchi, Duminda, 2023. "In search of climate distress risk," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 85(C).
    3. Annicciarico, Barbara & Di Dio, Fabio & Dilusio, Francesca, 2022. "Climate Actions, Market Beliefs, and Monetary Policy," Working Papers 2022-14, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    4. Alessi, Lucia & Battiston, Stefano, 2021. "Two sides of the same coin: Green Taxonomy alignment versus transition risk in financial portfolios," Working Papers 2021-14, Joint Research Centre, European Commission.
    5. Alessi, Lucia & Battiston, Stefano, 2022. "Two sides of the same coin: Green Taxonomy alignment versus transition risk in financial portfolios," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 84(C).

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    More about this item

    Keywords

    high-carbon firms; finance; Paris Agreement; stock holdings; US withdrawal;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • G11 - Financial Economics - - General Financial Markets - - - Portfolio Choice; Investment Decisions
    • G2 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services
    • Q51 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Valuation of Environmental Effects
    • Q58 - Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics; Environmental and Ecological Economics - - Environmental Economics - - - Environmental Economics: Government Policy

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