Sustainable Finance: Research and Policy Activities

Climate change is one of the megatrends that society is confronted with. In 2019, the European Union (EU) declared in the European Green Deal to transition to a sustainable economy until 2050, bringing up new challenges for the financial system. 

For financial markets, the consequences of climate change create new risks as well as a huge financing need to bear the costs of the transition toward a net-zero economy. At the same time, private investors’ interest in green and sustainable finance is rising. To make informed decisions from an economic and ecological perspective, it is important that information on environmental, social, and governance criteria (ESG) is available in a transparent and harmonized manner.

At SAFE, research looks into the impact on households, firms, and financial intermediaries and addresses issues like heterogenous ESG standards, regulatory loopholes, and greenwashing.

SAFE is part of the Frankfurt Panel on Sustainability Research and co-organized the First Sustainability Standards Watchers Conference in July 2022. Find out more about the conference.

Our researchers Loriana Pelizzon and Max Riedel presented their project “Green Auto Securitisation” at the kick-off-event for the research project “Sustainable Finance and Climate Protection”, supported by the German Federal Ministry of Education and Research. Their project aims to develop a framework for a green financing mechanism to encourage the automotive industry, stakeholders, and consumers to support the financing of low-emission vehicles through bank loans.

The cooperative project “ClimLabels” by the Universities Bochum and Münster, the think tank Climate & Company, and SAFE was also featured at the conference. This project aims to improve the availability of climate-related information regarding investment decisions and is divided into four sub-projects, one being coordinated by Christine Laudenbach. More information on the projects here.


Highlight

On 29 November, an alliance of scientific and research organizations organized the conference Business needs Nature - Towards a nature-positive Economy prior to the UN CBD COP 15 in Montréal.

Rewatch the conference here

News & Activities

    Publications

    Author/sTitleProgram AreaTypePublishedKeywords
    Jan Pieter KrahnenWelche Rolle spielt die Finanzwirtschaft im Angesicht des Klimawandels?
    Policy Letter No. 101
    Financial Markets Policy Paper2023Grüne Transformation, Finanzsystem, Regulierung
    Tobias Berg, Elena Carletti, Stijn Claessens, Jan Pieter Krahnen, Irene Monasterolo, Marco PaganoClimate regulation and financial risk: The challenge of policy uncertainty
    Policy Letter No. 100
    Financial Markets Policy Paper2023Climate Change, Financial Regulation and Banking
    Alperen Afşin GözlügölThe Clash of ‘E’ and ‘S’ of ESG: Just Transition on the Path to Net Zero and the Implications for Sustainable Corporate Governance and Finance
    Journal of World Energy Law & Business
    Law and Finance Published Paper2022climate change, sustainability, ESG, employees, workforce, net zero transition, corporate governance, institutional investors, green finance
    Alperen Afşin Gözlügöl, Wolf-Georg RingePrivate Companies: The Missing Link on The Path to Net Zero
    SAFE Working Paper No. 342
    Law and Finance SAFE Working Paper2022private companies, net zero transition, sustainability disclosures, brown-spinning, climate change, private equity
    Kevin Bauer, Oliver Hinz, Johanna Jagow, Cristina Mihale-Wilson, Maximilian Speicher, Moritz von ZahnThe Smart Green Nudge: Reducing Product Returns through Enriched Digital Footprints & Causal Machine Learning
    SAFE Working Paper No. 363
    Financial Intermediation, Experiment Center SAFE Working Paper2022
    Roman Inderst, Stefan ThomasNachhaltigkeit und Wettbewerb: Zu einer Reform des Wettbewerbsrechts für die Erreichung von Nachhaltigkeitszielen
    Policy Letter No. 94
    Law and Finance Policy Paper2022Nachhaltigkeit, ESG, Wettbewerbsrecht
    Monica Billio, Michele Costola, Iva Hristova, Carmelo Latino, Loriana PelizzonSustainable Finance: A journey toward ESG and climate risk
    SAFE Working Paper No. 349
    Financial Markets SAFE Working Paper2022Environmental, social, and governance factors (ESG); credit risk; debt cost; equity cost; sovereign bonds; portfolio management
    Jana Eisenkopf, Steffen Juranek, Uwe WalzResponsible Investment and Stock Market Shocks: Short-Term Insurance and Persistent Outperformance Post-Crisis?
    SAFE Working Paper No. 329
    Financial Intermediation SAFE Working Paper2021Responsible investment, ESG, stock market crisis, persistence
    Alperen Afşin GözlügölThe Clash of ‘E’ and ‘S’ of ESG: Just Transition on the Path to Net Zero and the Implications for Sustainable Corporate Governance and Finance
    SAFE Working Paper No. 325
    Law and Finance SAFE Working Paper2021climate change, sustainability, ESG, employees, workforce, net zero transition, corporate governance, institutional investors, green finance
    Jan Pieter Krahnen, Jörg Rocholl, Marcel ThumA primer on green finance: From wishful thinking to marginal impact
    White Paper No. 87
    Financial Markets Policy Paper2021Green Finance, Climate Change, Sustainability, Taxonomy, ESG
    Sebastian Steuer, Tobias TrögerThe Role of Disclosure in Green Finance
    SAFE Working Paper No. 320
    Law and Finance SAFE Working Paper2021
    Loriana Pelizzon, Aleksandra Rzeźnik, Kathleen Weiss HanleyInvestor Reliance on ESG Ratings and Stock Price Performance
    SAFE Working Paper No. 310
    Financial Markets SAFE Working Paper2021Corporate Social Responsibility, ESG Rating Agencies, Sustainable Invest- ments, Socially responsible investing, ESG, Portfolio choice
    Monica Billio, Michele Costola, Iva Hristova, Carmelo Latino, Loriana PelizzonInside the ESG Ratings: (Dis)agreement and Performance
    SAFE Working Paper No. 284
    Financial Markets SAFE Working Paper2020

    Finance Blog


      Ongoing Research Projects

      CategoryProjectResearcherProject DurationKeywordsProject IDPublication Count

      Sustainable Finance: People