Housing and the politics of climate adaptation: a macrofinancial approach

Projected climate damage directly threatens present-day asset values, affecting powerful economic constituencies. Yet climate-vulnerable asset (CVA) owners often fail to mobilise for decarbonisation. To analyse the politics of climate adaptation finance, this article develops a macrofinancial framework for understanding socio-economic conflict and asset owner coalitions. Focusing on the highly financialised yet exposed Dutch real estate sector, it analyses how climate change plays out across the consolidated balance sheets of the Dutch housing sector. In the absence of adequate global decarbonisation efforts, building owners have an interest in maintaining stable asset values, while the financial sector prefers better disclosure of risk (which can negatively impact asset values). An incipient coalition of CVA-owners pushes to transfer climate-related losses to the public balance sheet. Asset owners protect their assets, not the planet.