scholarly journals Climate Change Investment Risk: Optimal Portfolio Construction Ahead of the Transition to a Lower-Carbon Economy

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Ian Simm ◽  
Enrico Biffis ◽  
Davide Benedetti ◽  
Fotis Chatzimichalakis ◽  
Luciano Ruben Lilloy Fedele
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Optimal Portfolio ◽  
Portfolio Construction ◽  
Investment Risk ◽  
Carbon Economy ◽  
Lower Carbon

scholarly journals Climate change investment risk: optimal portfolio construction ahead of the transition to a lower-carbon economy

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Davide Benedetti ◽  
Enrico Biffis ◽  
Fotis Chatzimichalakis ◽  
Luciano Lilloy Fedele ◽  
Ian Simm
Keyword(s):  
Fossil Fuel ◽  
Portfolio Construction ◽  
Investment Risk ◽  
Carbon Pricing ◽  
Risk Return ◽  
Ex Post ◽  
Alternative Approaches ◽  
Potential Impact ◽  
Carbon Economy ◽  
Lower Carbon

AbstractThere is an increasing likelihood that governments of major economies will act within the next decade to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, probably by intervening in the fossil fuel markets through taxation or cap & trade mechanisms (collectively “carbon pricing”). We develop a model to capture the potential impact of carbon pricing on fossil fuel stocks, and use it to inform Bayesian portfolio construction methodologies, which are then used to create what we call Smart Carbon Portfolios. We find that investors could reduce ex-post risk by lowering the weightings of some fossil fuel stocks with corresponding higher weightings in lower-risk fossil fuel stocks and/or in the stocks of companies active in energy efficiency markets. The financial costs of such de-risking strategy are found to be statistically negligible in risk-return space. Robustness of the results is explored with alternative approaches.

Alternative scenarios for the future of the Canadian boreal zone1

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (2) ◽  
pp. 185-199 ◽  
Author(s):  
James W.N. Steenberg ◽  
Peter N. Duinker ◽  
Irena F. Creed ◽  
Jacqueline N. Serran ◽  
Camille Ouellet Dallaire
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Ecosystem Services ◽  
Adaptive Capacity ◽  
Fossil Fuels ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Boreal Zone ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Carbon Economy

In response to global climate change, Canada is transitioning towards a low-carbon economy and the need for policy approaches that are effective, equitable, coordinated, and both administratively and politically feasible is high. One point is clear; the transition is intimately tied to the vast supply of ecosystem services in the boreal zone of Canada. This paper describes four contrasting futures for the boreal zone using scenario analysis, which is a transdisciplinary, participatory approach that considers alternative futures and policy implications under conditions of high uncertainty and complexity. The two critical forces shaping the four scenarios are the global economy’s energy and society’s capacity to adapt. The six drivers of change are atmospheric change, the demand for provisioning ecosystem services, the demand for nonprovisioning ecosystem services, demographics, and social values, governance and geopolitics, and industrial innovation and infrastructure. The four scenarios include: (i) the Green Path, where a low-carbon economy is coupled with high adaptive capacity; (ii) the Uphill Climb, where a low-carbon economy is instead coupled with low adaptive capacity; (iii) the Carpool Lane, where society has a strong capacity to adapt but a reliance on fossil fuels; and (iv) the Slippery Slope, where there is both a high-carbon economy and a society with low adaptive capacity. The scenarios illustrate the importance of transitioning to a low-carbon economy and the role of society’s adaptive capacity in doing so. However, they also emphasize themes like social inequality and adverse environmental outcomes arising from the push towards climate change mitigation.

scholarly journals An Investigation into the Environmental Impact of Product Recovery Methods to Support Sustainable Manufacturing within Small and Medium-Sized Enterprises (SMEs)

2012 ◽  
pp. 73-90
Author(s):  
Michaela R. Appleby ◽  
Chris G. Lambert ◽  
Allan E. W. Rennie ◽  
Adam B. Buckley
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Life Cycle ◽  
Environmental Impact ◽  
Carbon Footprint ◽  
Sustainable Manufacturing ◽  
Product Recovery ◽  
Waste Hierarchy ◽  
Government Legislation ◽  
Lower Carbon ◽  
Recovery Methods

The effects of climate change and government legislation has changed the way in which manufacturers can dispose of their waste, encouraging SMEs to source alternative disposal methods such as those indicated in the waste hierarchy. It is economically and environmentally beneficial to use product recovery methods to divert waste from landfill. The environmental impact of two product recovery methods, remanufacturing and repairing, has been compared via a carbon footprint calculation for a UK-based SME. The calculation has identified that repairing has a lower carbon footprint than remanufacturing, however this only extends the original life-cycle of the product, whereas remanufacturing provides a new life-cycle and warranty, and therefore seen as the most preferable method of product recovery to support sustainable manufacturing.

Building a low-carbon economy: The inaugural report of the UK Committee on Climate Change

2009 ◽  
Vol 8 (3) ◽  
pp. 201-208 ◽  
Author(s):  
Samuel Fankhauser ◽  
David Kennedy ◽  
Jim Skea
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
The Uk ◽  
Carbon Economy

Financial Risks of Climate Change

2020 ◽  
pp. 43-62
Author(s):  
Janis Sarra
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Indigenous Peoples ◽  
Climate Change Impacts ◽  
Market Risk ◽  
Investment Risk ◽  
Financial Risks ◽  
Business Practices ◽  
Planetary Boundaries ◽  
New Business ◽  
Policy Risk

Chapter 3 examines a number of financial risks to the viability of businesses due to climate change. It describes how the acute and chronic impacts discussed in Chapter 2 create new business risks, both physical risks and transition risks. It explores technology risk, market risk, and investment risk, risk to the company’s reputation for failure to adopt a climate plan, and policy risk. It examines the implications for investors if assets are stranded or reduced in value. It introduces concerns regarding planetary boundaries and what impacts may be irreversible once they are crossed. This chapter also examines how women are disproportionately affected by climate change impacts and why Indigenous peoples are deserving of special attention and respect in developing policy and business practices related to climate change.

Climate Change – Turning Investment Risk into Opportunity

2021 ◽  
pp. 53-72
Author(s):  
Philipp Hildebrand ◽  
Jean Boivin ◽  
Jessica Tan ◽  
Simona Paravani-Mellinghoff ◽  
Ed Fishwick
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Investment Risk

scholarly journals More Timber in Construction: Unanswered Questions and Future Challenges

2020 ◽  
Vol 12 (8) ◽  
pp. 3473 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jim Hart ◽  
Francesco Pomponi
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Carbon Emissions ◽  
Land Allocation ◽  
Built Environments ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Environmental Loads ◽  
Environmental Product Declarations ◽  
Future Challenges ◽  
Life Options ◽  
Lower Carbon

The built environment is one of the greatest contributors to carbon emissions, climate change, and to the unsustainable pressure on the natural environment and its ecosystems. The use of more timber in construction is one possible response, and an authoritative contribution to this growing movement comes from the UK’s Committee on Climate Change, which identifies a “substantial increase in the use of wood in the construction of buildings” as a top priority. However, a global encouragement of such a strategy raises some difficult questions. Given the urgency of effective solutions for low-carbon built environments, and the likely continued growth in demand for timber in construction, this article reviews its sustainability and identifies future challenges and unanswered questions. Existing evidence points indeed towards timber as the lower carbon option when modelled through life cycle assessment without having to draw on arguments around carbon storage. Issues however remain on the timing of carbon emissions, land allocation, and the environmental loads and benefits associated with the end-of-life options: analysis of environmental product declarations for engineered timber suggests that landfill might either be the best or the worst option from a climate change perspective, depending on assumptions.

scholarly journals Towards Lower-Carbon Indian Agricultural Development: An Experiment in Multi-criteria Mapping

2019 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 5-30 ◽  
Author(s):  
Barbara Harriss-White ◽  
Alfred Gathorne-Hardy ◽  
Gilbert Rodrigo
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Expert Knowledge ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
System Of Rice Intensification ◽  
Systematic Analysis ◽  
Electricity Grid ◽  
Urban Rural ◽  
Rice Intensification ◽  
Lower Carbon

Agricultural development research and policy has to address climate change. Against the mainstream focus on adaptation, this article reports on public policy implications for climate change mitigation of a project measuring environmental, social and economic aspects of India’s rice economy: greenhouse gases (GHGs), energy and water; the quantity and quality of work and a systematic analysis of market and social costs and returns. A detailed life cycle assessment of GHG production generates four different kinds of technological possibilities helping the transition towards lower-carbon agriculture: rain-fed rice production (RR), System of Rice Intensification (SRI), solar pumps (SPs) and halving transmission and distribution (T&D) losses in the electricity grid. Through quantitative ranking and qualitative discursive analysis, a new method, multi-criteria mapping (MCM), is trialled in which the benefits of alternatives are evaluated by incommensurable criteria. These are costs, employment and GHGs. This experimental application crosses two languages (English and Tamil), compares participants with expert knowledge (EKs) with agrarian participants with situated knowledge (SKs), and explores the influence of identity (urban-rural, gender, and education).

Study on Low-Carbon Economy Model and Method of Chinese Tourism Industry

2011 ◽  
Vol 2 (2) ◽  
pp. 69-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Zhang Mu ◽  
Luo Jing ◽  
Zhang Xiaohong ◽  
Tang Lei ◽  
Feng Xiao-na ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Global Warming ◽  
Global Climate Change ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Tourism Industry ◽  
Low Carbon ◽  
Economy Model ◽  
Low Carbon Economy ◽  
Framework System ◽  
Carbon Economy

Recent years saw the global wave of new low-carbon economy which is a strategic measure to cope with global warming, and it has gained concerns from many governments. As the representatives of developing countries, China is responsible for “common but distinguishing duty for global climate change.” Many policies have been made to develop low-carbon economy with the hope to advocate and innovate low-carbon economy in some industries and cities during these years. Therefore, it is a theoretical and innovative project to find a low-carbon economical model for various industries and carry out the experiments of low-carbon economy in some cities. Hence, guided by low-carbon economy theory, choosing booming Chinese tourism industry as the object, this paper constructs an operation framework system of low-carbon tourism development from the advantage of low-carbon tourism to the proposal of low-carbon tourism definition so as to conclude an execution scheme of “six elements” of low-carbon tourism with selecting OCT East (Chinese national ecotourism demonstration district) and Mt. Danxia (World Geo-park) as demonstration districts to discuss about models and methods of low-carbon economy in tourism.

cop 25: Losing Sight of (Raising) Ambition

2020 ◽  
Vol 17 (2) ◽  
pp. 136-160
Author(s):  
Charlotte Streck ◽  
Moritz von Unger ◽  
Sandra Greiner
Keyword(s):  
Climate Change ◽  
Developing Countries ◽  
United Nations ◽  
Paris Agreement ◽  
Carbon Markets ◽  
Market Mechanisms ◽  
Political Bargaining ◽  
Climate Action ◽  
Zero Carbon ◽  
Carbon Economy

The 25th session of the Conference of the Parties (cop-25) of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (unfccc) became the longest cop on record – but yielded few results. It appears that four years after the adoption of the Paris Agreement, enthusiasm has waned and political bargaining and bean-counting have taken over. Countries, for even the slightest chance to keep temperatures ‘well below’ 2 degrees Celsius, must do much more than they have previously committed to and accelerate the shift towards a zero-carbon economy. However, the conference largely failed to heed the rallying cry of the Chilean presidency. The flagship decisions (grouped under the banner “Chile-Madrid Time for Action”) neither produced new commitments – enhancing ambition or finance for developing countries – nor new rules that would nudge countries closer to the climate action targets needed. The leftover pieces from last year’s negotiations of the “Paris Rulebook” were also not resolved, in particular the unfinished decisions on Article 6 on market- and non-market mechanisms. The procrastination shows that the new architecture of the Paris Agreement, while addressing several of the shortcomings of the Kyoto Protocol, suffers from its own weaknesses. The meager results of Madrid give reason to pause and reflect on the conditions that may hold countries back from fully embracing the Paris Agreement, but also to consider the future and nature of carbon markets and what is making the issue so difficult to resolve.

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