This special issue invites papers that advance our understanding of climate and sustainable finance.
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Guest editors:
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Kun Guo, Chinese Academy of Science, guokun@ucas.ac.cn
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Feng He (corresponding), Capital University of Economics and Business,feng_ac@163.com
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Xinming Li, Nankai University, hengqian_li@hotmail.com
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Weixing Wu, Capital University of Economics and Business, wxwu@cueb.edu.cn
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Xiong Xiong, Tianjin University, xxpeter@tju.edu.cn
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Special issue information:
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Over the past century, human activities such as the use of fossil fuels and land utilization have led to a continuous rise in global greenhouse gas emissions. As a result, extreme climate events, including droughts and floods, are becoming more frequent and severe, exerting widespread impacts on global economic development. In 2023, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) highlighted in its Sixth Assessment Report that the current global temperature exceeds pre-industrial levels by 1.1°C, emphasizing that climate change has become a time bomb threatening sustainable human development.
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Climate change-related risks have direct or indirect implications for the financial system. Since the signing of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change in 1992, there has been a continual increase in global investment and financing needs for climate change mitigation and adaptation, leading to growing attention towards climate finance (Stroebel and Wurgler, 2021). At the micro-level of asset pricing and corporate governance, climate change-induced risk shocks adversely affect firms' future cash flows, consequently impacting their total factor productivity and stock returns (Ren et al., 2022; Pankratz et al., 2023; Sautner et al., 2023), necessitating technological transformations and low-carbon transitions within firms (Pástor et al., 2022). From a macro perspective concerning economic growth and financial system stability, rising sea levels undermine the value of coastal real estate (Murfin and Spiegel, 2020), diminish local fiscal revenues (Goldsmith-Pinkham et al., 2023), extreme weather events amplify global economic activity uncertainties (Liu et al., 2023), policy uncertainties associated with climate change result in asset stranding (Kalkuhl et al., 2020), and various adverse impacts collectively jeopardize financial system stability (Roncoroni et al., 2021).
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Existing research suggests that climate finance plays a constructive role in enhancing corporate social responsibility and promoting sustainable development. However, some studies indicate that pollution reduction and carbon mitigation pose costly and challenging tasks for corporations. The uneven distribution of climate risks also leads to disparities in the development of climate finance across countries and geographical regions. At present, accurately modeling the long-term impacts of climate change on financial markets remains challenging, and the resilience of climate finance is yet to be fully established. Therefore, it is essential to deepen our understanding of the tangible benefits of climate finance, providing more practical implications for decision-making in adaptation and mitigation strategies for climate change.
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Contributions to this special issue are expected to cover the following topics but are not limited to:
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Additional information
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This call for paper is in conjunction with the 2024 Climate and Sustainable Finance Conference, to be held in Beijing, March 30 - 31st, 2024; and 2024 International Conference on Climate and Energy Finance, to be held in Weihai, May 31st to June 2nd, 2024. Presentation at these Conferences is of priority consideration for this special issue.