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Political Science > Environmental Policy

You are looking at 1 - 8 of 8 items for :

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Cover IMF Working Papers
Mitigating Climate Change at the Firm Level: Mind the Laggards
Damien Capelle, Divya Kirti, Nicola Pierri, and German Villegas Bauer
Using self-reported data on emissions for a global sample of 4,000 large, listed firms, we document large heterogeneity in environmental performance within the same industry and country. Laggards—firms with high emissions relative to the scale of their operations—are larger, operate older physical capital stocks, are less knowledge intensive and productive, and adopt worse management practices. To rationalize these findings, we build a novel general equilibrium heterogeneous-firm model in which firms choose capital vintages and R&D expenditure and hence emissions. The model matches the full empirical distribution of firm-level heterogeneity among other moments. Our counter-factual analysis shows that this heterogeneity matters for assessing the macroeconomic costs of mitigation policies, the channels through which policies act, and their distributional effects. We also quantify the gains from technology transfers to EMDEs.
Keywords:
Climate Change; Productivity; Technology Adoption; Capital Vintages; Emissions; R&D expenditure; capital vintage; management practice; emission intensity; emission Intensity; Carbon tax; Greenhouse gas emissions; Consumption; Stocks; Global
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Switzerland: Selected Issues
International Monetary Fund. European Dept.
This Selected Issues paper on Switzerland focuses on assessing Swiss National Bank (SNB) balance sheet changes in 2022. This paper clarifies the main underlying drivers, discusses potential implications, or lack thereof, on monetary and fiscal policies, and assesses the SNB’s financial performance. Central banks’ financial results are not directly comparable with each other, given their non-profit nature, the differences in their mandates and, importantly, their different accounting policies. In particular, many other central banks would have recorded much larger financial losses in 2022 if mark-to-market accounting were applied. The SNB’s financial loss in 2022 is not expected to have an impact on monetary policy operations. The SNB has appropriately warned about risks to its balance sheet, including during periods of high profitability. In addition, the SNB put in place sound safeguards against such risks, and provided transparent communications on its investment strategy. Nevertheless, large balance sheets are subject to risks, highlighting communication challenges during periods of both large profits and losses. In this context, the SNB should continue to regularly review its investment strategy and maintain adequate safeguards.
Keywords:
ECB monetary policy; monetary policy shock; SNB balance sheet; Switzerland NBFIs; mitigation target; Greenhouse gas emissions; Stock markets; Nonbank financial institutions; Climate policy; Global; Europe
Cover IMF Working Papers
Carbon Policy and Stock Returns: Signals from Financial Markets
Martina Hengge, Ugo Panizza, and Richard Varghese
Understanding the impact of climate mitigation policies is key to designing effective carbon pricing tools. We use institutional features of the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) and high-frequency data on more than 2,000 publicly listed European firms over 2011-21 to study the impact of carbon policies on stock returns. After extracting the surprise component of regulatory actions, we show that events resulting in higher carbon prices lead to negative abnormal returns which increase with a firm's carbon intensity. This negative relationship is even stronger for firms in sectors which do not participate in the EU ETS suggesting that investors price in transition risk stemming from the shift towards a low-carbon economy. We conclude that policies which increase carbon prices are effective in raising the cost of capital for emission-intensive firms.
Keywords:
Carbon Emissions; Carbon Prices: Climate Change; Transition Risk; Stock Returns; carbon Policy surprise; investors price; carbon intensity; climate mitigation policy; EU ETS; Greenhouse gas emissions; Stocks; Asset prices; Climate change; Europe; Global; Emissions trading; stock return; carbon policy; EU Emissions Trading System; Climate policy
Cover IMF Working Papers
A Market for Brown Assets To Make Finance Green
Mr. Domenico Fanizza and Laura Cerami
This paper proposes a market solution to enhance the role of the financial sector in the green transition. Developing a secondary market for “brown exposures” can allow banks to dispose more quickly of stranded assets thereby increasing their capacity to finance green investments. Furthermore, newly created instruments – the brown assets backed securities (B-ABS) - can expand the diversification opportunities for specialized green investors and, thus, attract additional resources for new green investments. The experience of the secondary market for non-performing loans suggests that targeted policy and regulatory measures can simultaneously support the development of the secondary market for brown assets and green finance.
Keywords:
Green finance; financial innovation; greenium; financial sector; climate change; market solution; experience of the secondary market; green transition; policy simulation; Climate finance; Nonperforming loans; Securities markets; Climate policy; Global; Europe
Cover Staff Climate Notes
Climate Change and Select Financial Instruments: An Overview of Opportunities and Challenges for Sub-Saharan Africa
Anna Belianska, Nadja Bohme, Kailhao Cai, Yoro Diallo, Saanya Jain, Mr. Giovanni Melina, Ms. Pritha Mitra, Mr. Marcos Poplawski Ribeiro, and Solo Zerbo
Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) is the region in the world most vulnerable to climate change despite its cumulatively emitting the least amount of greenhouse gases. Substantial financing is urgently needed across the economy—for governments, businesses, and households—to support climate change adaptation and mitigation, which are critical for advancing resilient and green economic development as well as meeting commitments under the Paris Agreement. Given the immensity of SSA’s other development needs, this financing must be in addition to existing commitments on development finance. There are many potential ways to raise financing to meet adaptation and mitigation needs, spanning from domestic revenue mobilization to various forms of international private financing. Against this backdrop, S SA policymakers and stakeholders are exploring sources of financing for climate action that countries may not have used substantially in the past. This Staff Climate Note presents some basic information on opportunities and challenges associated with these financing instruments.
Keywords:
Climate finance; sub-Saharan Africa; climate change; mitigation; adaptation; concessional finance; green bonds; blue bonds; sustainability bonds; debt for climate swaps; carbon credits; climate insurance; climate funds; forest conservation; green development; IMF staff Climate note; IMF staff Climate Note 2022/009; solo Zerbo; SSA policymaker; SSA government; crowding out SSA project; Climate policy; Greenhouse gas emissions; Insurance; Global; Africa
Cover IMF Staff Country Reports
Grenada: Disaster Resilience Strategy
International Monetary Fund. Western Hemisphere Dept.
Natural disasters and climate change are existential threats to Grenada, with annual losses from these events estimated at 1.7 percent of GDP. Grenada has proactively pursued resilience-building, with its Climate Change Policy and National Adaptation Plan providing detailed roadmaps for policymakers. However, the challenges are increasing, including from slow-moving effects owing to the rising sea level, even as implementation capacity and resource constraints remain significant impediments. The COVID-19 pandemic has amplified those challenges by increasing risks and tightening Grenada’s fiscal space.
Keywords:
DRS Fiscal; post DISASTER; DRS between the IMF; DRS coverage; DRS direct costs; debt sustainability implication; Natural disasters; Climate change; Infrastructure; Insurance; Caribbean
Cover IMF Working Papers
Do Banks Price Environmental Transition Risks? Evidence from a Quasi-Natural Experiment in a Chinese Province
Bihong Huang, Maria Teresa Punzi, and Yu Wu
This paper assesses the financial risks arising from transition toward a low-emission economy. The environmental DSGE model shows tightening environmental regulation impairs firms’ balance sheets, and consequently threatens financial stability in the short term. The empirical analysis indicates that following the implmentation of Clean Air Action Plan, the default rates of high-polluting firms in a Chinese province rose by around 80 percent. Joint equity commercial banks with higher level of independence were able to appropriately price in their exposure to transition risks, while the Big Five commercial banks failed to factor in such risks.
Keywords:
E-DSGE Model; Financial stability; Clean Air Action Plan; transition risk; baseline analysis; default rate; data source; capital market department; Loans; Environmental policy; Commercial banks; Self-employment; Global
Cover IMF Working Papers
Climate Disaster Risks – Empirics and a Multi-Phase Dynamic Model
Stefan Mittnik, Willi Semmler, and Alexander Haider
Recent research in financial economics has shown that rare large disasters have the potential to disrupt financial sectors via the destruction of capital stocks and jumps in risk premia. These disruptions often entail negative feedback e?ects on the macroecon-omy. Research on disaster risks has also actively been pursued in the macroeconomic models of climate change. Our paper uses insights from the former work to study disaster risks in the macroeconomics of climate change and to spell out policy needs. Empirically the link between carbon dioxide emission and the frequency of climate re-lated disaster is investigated using cross-sectional and panel data. The modeling part then uses a multi-phase dynamic macro model to explore this causal nexus and the e?ects of rare large disasters resulting in capital losses and rising risk premia. Our proposed multi-phase dynamic model, incorporating climate-related disaster shocks and their aftermath as one phase, is suitable for studying mitigation and adaptation policies.
Keywords:
WP; monetary policy; capital stock; low income; risk pooling; climate economics; disaster risk; macro feedbacks; multi-phase macro model; monetary and financial policies; environmental economics; bond financing; credit policy; climate finance policy; bond issuing; climate bond; Bonds; Greenhouse gas emissions; Climate change; Climate policy; Natural disasters; Central Asia; Sub-Saharan Africa; East Asia; North Africa; Middle East