Climate change - blog
The PRI blog is a platform for discussion around environmental, social and governance issues, as well as other topical matters. It showcases thought leadership on responsible investment for PRI signatories, and is written by PRI staff members and guest contributors.
Also see our academic climate change related blogs
Bringing PRI in Person to Canada is an exciting prospect: Here’s why
PRI CEO, David Atkin, assesses the responsible investment landscape in Canada, the host country where we’ll next be holding our next annual conference, PRI in Person.
UK Spring Budget - Pensions proposals silent on sustainability
The UK government’s Spring Budget put an emphasis on investments in the UK but creates more risks for long-term savers by not sufficiently addressing sustainability risks, says Nikki King, PRI Policy Analyst.
Action on nature: Spring announces first batch of focus companies
Tim Steinweg, PRI Head of Stewardship - Nature, provides an update on Spring, the PRI’s stewardship initiative on nature.
2024: Accelerating action on responsible investment
PRI CEO, David Atkin, evaluates our ambitions for the year ahead.
Our policy progress in 2023 and outlook for 2024
The PRI’s Director of Global Policy, Margarita Pirovska, reflects on the progress of sustainable finance policy over the past year.
Reflections on COP28: A line in the sand
PRI CEO, David Atkin, reflects on some of the key outcomes of COP28
Net zero alliances and the way forward for our industry
By Nathan Fabian - Chief Sustainable Systems Officer
Amplification, not apathy: Investor proxy votes increasingly challenge corporates in 2023
By Bonnie Groves, Specialist, Stewardship and Yejin Hur, Intern, Stewardship
The race to net zero will be won or lost in Asia
By David Atkin, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment
Quarterly Signatory Update: Adapting the PRI to a changing world
By David Atkin, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment
Why we must act faster to enable the climate transition
By David Atkin, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment
The role of the PRI in a changing world
By David Atkin, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment
Biden weighs in on the battle for the soul of Wall Street
By David Atkin, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment
COP out: how the promise of Glasgow has faded
By Eliette Riera, Head of UK Policy, PRI
Sustainability outcomes: How can investors support the development of meaningful data?
By Stephen Andrews, Senior Data Analyst, and Julie Hammer-Monart, Senior Analyst, Sustainability Outcomes
Part II: ESG factors and returns – a review of industry research since 2021
By Toby Belsom, Director, Investment Practices, PRI, and Bowie Ko, Research Analyst, PRI
Continuing the winning streak
By Lorenzo Saa, former Chief Signatory Relations Officer, PRI
PRI at COP27 – Reflections on week one
By David Atkin – Chief Executive Officer, PRI
China raises the bar on investor regulations to promote green finance
By Junru Liu, Senior Policy Analyst for China
PRI signatories understand link between climate and financial risk, reporting data shows
By Kimberly Gladman, Senior Associate, Climate, PRI, and Stephen Andrews, Senior Data Analyst, PRI
![Youth G20- Why is it relevant for investors[2343]](https://dwtyzx6upklss.cloudfront.net/Pictures/415x277/2/1/9/17219_youthg20whyisitrelevantforinvestors2343_732502.jpg)
Youth G20: Why is it relevant for investors?
Safeguarding a liveable planet matters to everyone, especially the next generation
Circular economy: The missing link for investor action on climate and nature
By Rebecca Chapman, Head of Environment
Why it’s time for investors to take another look at US climate policy
Greg Hershman, Head of US Policy, and Ed Baker, Head of Climate Policy, PRI
The human right to a healthy environment provides a strong mandate to investors
By Louisa Guy, UK Policy Analyst, PRI
Code of the road: new traffic lights for investors to finance the transition
Jan Vandermosten, Senior Policy Analyst, EU, PRI
Whoever wins the Tory leadership, progress on UK climate policies must remain a priority
By Eliette Riera, Head of UK Policy
The net-zero transition in China: progress has been made, but challenges remain
By Nan Luo, Head of China, PRI
Why investors should respond to the SEC’s timely proposal on climate-related disclosures
Gregory Hershman, Head of US Policy, PRI
Investor Climate Action Plans & net zero targets: opportunities for progress in 2022
By Hamish Stewart, Senior Associate, Climate Change, PRI & Rahnuma Chowdhury, Investor Climate Action Lead, UNEP FI
What the war in Ukraine means for climate policy
By Ed Baker, Head of Climate Policy, and Margarita Pirovska, Director of Policy, PRI
What does international conflict mean for responsible investment?
By Nathan Fabian, Chief Responsible Investment Officer, PRI
How can investors ensure a 1.5°C future for the aviation sector?
By Jasna Šelih, Stewardship Specialist (Climate Action 100+), PRI
Leadership in ESG incorporation – asset owners
To meet their climate change commitments, asset owners will need to develop increasingly sophisticated systematic approaches to assessing and benchmarking the alignment of prospective managers.
Asset Owner Alliance accelerates pace of change in net-zero targets
By Jesica Andrews, Director, Investment Leadership Programme, PRI-UNEPFI
Seven major companies that committed to net-zero emissions in 2021
By Marshall Geck, Senior Specialist, Stewardship (Climate Action 100+), London
Legal Framework for Impact: embedding climate action in financial regulation
By Freya Bannochie, Policy Analyst, UK, PRI, and Laxmi Aeshwarya Kumar, Project Specialist, UNEP FI
Looking ahead: six priorities for responsible investors
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
How should insurers be responding to climate change?
By Chris Fowle, Director of Signatory relations Americas, PRI
Bridging the gaps in sustainable corporate-investor communication
By Morgan Slebos, Director Sustainable Markets, PRI and Joss Tantram, Director, Redefining Value, WBCSD
COP26: an important step – but there’s still work to do
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
The policy challenge for the inevitable response to the climate transition
By Mark Fulton, Project Director - Inevitable Policy Response (IPR) & Founder - Energy Transition Advisers
Putting Indigenous leadership at the heart of Canada’s just transition
Kelly Krauter, Senior Policy Analyst, Canada, PRI
COP26 must keep a 1.5-degree world alive
By Sagarika Chatterjee, Director of Climate Change, PRI
Highlights from the PRI Digital Conference: investors poised to build a sustainable future
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
Less than one week until COP26, new Australian climate plans still fall short
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
CBD COP15: What does the global biodiversity framework mean for investors?
By Gemma James, Senior lead, Environmental Issues, PRI
As COP 26 approaches, climate metrics, targets, and transition planning advances
By Kimberly Gladman, Senior Associate, Climate Change, PRI
How compatible is shorting with responsible investment?
By Toby Belsom, Director of Investment Practices, PRI
PRI launches venture capital collaboration to strengthen ESG take-up
By Peter Dunbar, Senior Specialist, Investment Practices, PRI, Hannah Leach and Johannes Lenhard, VentureESG
Net zero target setting: opportunities for Latin American investor leadership
By Hamish Stewart, Senior Associate, Climate, PRI
Climate transition – moving to the core of board investment governance
By Julian Poulter, Head of Investor Relations, Inevitable Policy Response (IPR)
Takeaways from the IPCC report: Urgent. Action. Now
By Jack Balsdon, Senior Associate, Climate Change, PRI
Time must be called on negative climate lobbying
By Fiona Reynolds (@fireynolds), CEO, PRI
Launching the climate hub for private markets
By Peter Dunbar, CFA, Senior Specialist, PRI and Simon Whistler, Senior Specialist, PRI
Climbing the ladder to net zero emissions: from pledges to action
By Hamish Stewart, Senior Associate, Climate Change, PRI
CEO quarterly update: celebrating 4000 signatories and supporting the evolution of RI
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
Retrograde Australian proxy advice reforms impede the rise of global stewardship
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment
The logic for Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanisms
By Mark Fulton, Programme Director, Inevitable Policy Response
US PRI signatories support mandatory climate & ESG disclosure
By Gregory Hershman, Senior Specialist, US Policy, PRI
How can China achieve carbon neutrality by 2060?
By Nan Luo, Head of China, PRI
Inevitable Policy Response: Biden Climate Leaders Summit confirms momentum
By Mark Fulton, Founder, Energy Transition Advisors and Eric Ling, Engagement Manager, Vivid Economics
Shifting horizons: from net-zero ambitions to near-term climate action
Fiona Reynolds, CEO, Principles for Responsible Investment
Climate policy - the coming acceleration
By Mark Fulton, founding partner at Energy Transition Advisors, The Inevitable Policy Response Project Lead and Advisor to the PRI
Regulation database update: the unstoppable rise of RI policy
By Hazell Ransome, Policy analyst, PRI
Why COVID-19 is driving action on climate, biodiversity and social justice
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
Delivering carbon neutrality in China
By Nan Luo, Head of China, PRI
Seven major companies that committed to net-zero emissions in 2020
Marshall Geck, Senior Specialist, Stewardship (Climate Action 100+), Washington DC
Five years on, the Paris Agreement must be re-energised
By Sagarika Chatterjee, Director of Climate Change, the PRI, and COP26 Champions Finance Lead
Taking a page from its own playbook: how Australia’s pandemic response can inform climate action
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
Climate resilience top of mind for US insurers
By Chris Fowle, Director of Americas, PRI, and Christine Pishko, Relationship Manager, US, PRI
Just transition: key to advancing climate action in a divided US
Marshall Geck, Senior Specialist, Stewardship (Climate Action 100+)
The Inevitable Policy Response under Biden’s climate plan – the stage is set
By Jason Eis, Executive Director, Vivid Economics, Mark Fulton, Founder, Energy Transition Advisers (ETA), Eric Ling, Engagement Manager, Vivid Economics
Beyond divestment: climate change strategies for endowments
By Ophir Bruck, Relationship Manager, US and Saumya Mehrotra, Relationship Manager, US, both PRI
Time for real assets investors to take the next step on climate change
By Simon Whistler, Senior Specialist, Investment Practices, PRI
Accounting for climate: getting the numbers investors need
By Paul Lee, Independent Stewardship Consultant and Morgan Slebos, Director of Sustainable Markets, PRI
A pandemic was near inevitable - so too is climate-driven disruption
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI and Ilmi Granoff, Programme Director, Sustainable Finance, ClimateWorks Foundation
How COVID-19 urgency can help investors tackle the climate crisis
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
COVID‐19: implications for the Inevitable Policy Response to climate change: prepare and act now
By Mark Fulton, Energy Transition Advisers, and Thomas Kansy, Vivid Economics
Coronavirus concerns should not divert aviation’s climate response
By Ravi Varghese, Vice President & ESG Analyst, Epoch Investment Partners, New York
EU taxonomy final report: 2020 starts a decade of action on climate change
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
The Net-zero Asset Owner Alliance: let’s begin a decade of climate action
By Sagarika Chatterjee, Director of Climate Change, PRI
ESG and climate change: time for corporate boards to step up their game
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
Australia’s fires bring climate emergency into stark focus
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, PRI
Could corporate lobbying pose a significant threat to responsible investment?
Signatories: act now by signing the PRI’s letter to the SEC
Markets are underprepared for climate-related policy risks
By Sagarika Chatterjee, Director of Climate Change, PRI
Preparing financial markets for climate-related policy and regulatory risk
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, the PRI
Chile aumenta el interés en la inversión responsable con la COP25 en el horizante
Por Eduardo Atehortua, Head of Latin America (ex Brazil), en Chile
Key takeaways of the TCFD's second status report
By Edward Baker, Senior Advisor, Energy and Low-Carbon Transition, the PRI
Changement climatique et transition juste: quel rôle pour les investisseurs?
1Par Nabylah Abo Dehman, Manager, Social Issues, the PRI
The growing recognition of ESG factors amongst US insurers
By Saumya Mehrotra, Associate US, Signatory Relations in New York
Engaging Exxon: investors’ role in mitigating climate change
By Fiona Reynolds, CEO, the PRI
Five key takeaways from the Ceres Conference 2019
By Marshall Geck in Washington DC, Manager, Climate Action 100+
Uber IPO: what are the ESG risks and opportunities?
By Toby Belsom, Director of Investment Practices, the PRI
Central bankers step up on climate risk
By Sagarika Chatterjee, Director of Climate Change, the PRI
The US coal industry shows a low-carbon transition could be anything but orderly
By Marshall Geck in Washington DC, Manager, Climate Action 100+, the PRI
International Women's Day 2019: remembering gender in the just transition
By Bettina Reinboth, Head of Social Issues, the PRI
Climate change tops the list of ESG concerns for investors in 2019
By Fiona Reynolds, Chief Executive Officer, the PRI
Academic climate change related blogs
Excluding high-emitting companies from sustainable funds is counterproductive
Rather than incentivising heavy polluters to cut back, such an approach may cause them to pollute more
How exposure to weather events can affect analysts’ earning forecasts
Understanding how analysts perceive future climate-related physical risks is key to assessing the effects of climate change
Analysing the world’s largest asset owner’s approach to ESG engagement
Remunerated engagement, in combination with index inclusion, can significantly enhance companies’ ESG scores
Can ‘financialisation’ save nature?
By Diane-Laure Arjaliès, Associate Professor at the Ivey Business School at Western University (Canada) and Founder and lead of the Ivey Sustainable Finance Lab, and Delphine Gibassier of Université de Nantes (France)
Climate regulatory risks have strong impacts on corporate bond pricing and credit ratings
By Laura Starks, George Kozmetsky Centennial Distinguished University Chair and Professor of Finance, McCombs School of Business, University of Texas at Austin
How do natural areas affect financial markets?
By Claudio Rizzi, University of Miami – Miami Herbert Business School
Do climate initiatives reduce companies’ cheap talk?
By Julia Bingler, Council on Economic Policies; Mathias Kraus, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg; Markus Leippold, University of Zurich and Swiss Finance Institute; and Nicolas Webersinke, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg
How do companies adapt to climate change exposure?
By Xia Li, Boston University
How best to implement net-zero pledges to achieve corporate decarbonisation
By Harrison Hong and Neng Wang, Columbia University; and Jinqiang Yang, Shanghai University of Finance
Partisanship and climate-exposed property purchases – a threat to investment in mitigation and adaption?
By Asaf Bernstein, Stephen B. Billings and Ryan Lewis, University of Colorado; and Matthew Gustafson, Penn State University
How climate reallocates labour and capital within countries: new evidence from Brazil
By Christoph Albert, Collegio Carlo Alberto; Paula Bustos, CEMFI and Jacopo Ponticelli, Northwestern University
Why climate mitigation scenarios should factor in transition risk
By Stefano Battiston, University of Zurich and University of Venice, and Irene Monasterolo, EDHEC Business School and EDHEC-Risk Institute, France
Complementary or conflicting: How does state intervention interact with green investing to affect corporate environmental behaviour?
By Shipeng Yan and Juan (John) Almandoz, University of Hong Kong; and Fabrizio Ferraro, IESE Business School
Do mandatory climate-related disclosures by financial institutions speed up fossil fuel divestment?
By Benoit Nguyen, Banque de France, and Jean-Stéphane Mésonnier, Banque de France
Is it time to make climate risk disclosures mandatory?
By Julia Anna Bingler, ETH Zurich, Mathias Kraus, University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and Markus Leippold, University of Zurich
Shareholders pressing for climate risk disclosures are doing companies a favour
By Caroline Flammer, Boston University; Michael Toffel, and Kala Viswanathan, Harvard Business School
Barriers to net zero: How firms can make or break the green transition
By Ralph De Haas and Helena Schweiger, EBRD Office of the Chief Economist; Ralf Martin and Mirabelle Muûls, Imperial College London
How disclosing transition and physical climate risks affects credit default swaps
By Julian Koelbel and Markus Leippold, University of Zurich; Jordy Rillaert, SFI Swiss Institute, and Qian Wang, UBS
Global pricing of carbon-transition risk
By Patrick Bolton, Columbia Business School and Marcin Kacperczyk, Imperial College London
Can diversity accelerate the integration of climate-related issues by investors and boards?
By Kristin Bresnahan, Jens Frankenreiter, Brea Hinricks, Eric Talley, Sophie L’Hélias, Nina Hodzic, Julian Nyarko and Sneha Pandya
Climate finance: What does the research say?
Stefano Giglio, Yale School of Management, NBER and CEPR, Bryan Kelly, Yale School of Management, AQR Capital Management and NBER and Johannes Stroebel, New York University, Stern School of Business, NBER, and CEPR
Does climate change drive up the cost of government borrowing?
By Hannes Boehm, Halle Institute for Economic Research
How do hurricane shocks impact local public finance dynamics in the US?
By Rhiannon Jerch, Assistant Professor of Economics at Temple University, Matthew E. Kahn, Bloomberg Distinguished Professor of Economics and Business and Director of JHU’s 21st Century Cities Initiative, Johns Hopkins University and NBER, and Gary C. Lin, Postdoctoral Fellow at the Johns Hopkins University
Is climate change priced into the options market?
By Emirhan Ilhan, Zacharias Sautner and Grigory Vilkov, Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Can climate change legislation keep its momentum?
By Shaikh Eskander, Kingston University, Sam Fankhauser and Joana Setzer, both Grantham Research Institute
The challenge of tracking firm-level climate change exposure
By Zacharias Sautner, Laurence van Lent, Grigory Vilkov, Ruishen Zhang (All authors are from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management)
Carbon reductions and climate risk – does the Paris Agreement hold the key?
By Tarun Ramadorai, Imperial College London & Federica Zeni, Imperial College London
Do local weather conditions resonate more than global climate trends?
By Darwin Choi, Zhenyu Gao, and Wenxi Jiang, The Chinese University of Hong Kong Business School
Assessing climate risks in investors’ portfolios: a journey through climate stress-testing
By Irene Monasterolo, Assistant Professor of Climate Economics and Finance, Vienna University of Economics and Business
Climate disclosure – what does this year’s ExxonMobil resolution tell us?
Examining climate disclosure through an in-depth look at the upcoming ExxonMobil climate disclosure resolution.
Long walk to below 2 degrees – reflections on COP22
Canny investors recognise the need to understand climate risk and protect investments.
Within 2 degrees: Where will the stranded assets be?
A study by Christophe McGlade and Paul Ekins demonstrates that in order to limit global warming to 2oC above pre-industrial levels, a third of oil reserves, half of gas reserves and over 8o% of coal reserves should remain unused until at least 2050.
How policy makers can make sustainable energy projects bankable
Christopher Kaminker of the OECD has identified barriers to institutional investors filling the financing gap in sustainable energy investing, outlining recommendations to policy makers on how these barriers can be mitigated.
Are investment consultants' reputations the next stranded assets
A paper from Ben Caldecott and Dane Rook lays out why investment consultants are not having a bigger influence on the uptake of green investment practices by asset owners.
Decarbonised indexes can help hedge climate risk
Mats Andersson, Patrick Bolton and Frédéric Samama demonstrate that a decarbonised index offers long-term, passive investors a way to hedge climate change risk without sacrificing financial returns.
Climate risk: the unhedgeable half
A Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) report shows that up to half of the losses from shifting market sentiment to climate change can be offset through asset allocation, but that the remaining half is unhedgeable at the investor level, leaving investors exposed unless system-wide action is taken.
CO2 disclosure cuts the cost of debt
Energy, the lifeblood of any business, is a considerable cost, but being more transparent about emissions data could be a way for businesses to reduce some of that cost and create value for shareholders.
Directors' duties in the anthropocene: liability for corporate harm due to incation on climate change
This paper examines corporate directors’ duties in the context of climate change as a material financial risk. The author builds the case that directors are increasingly at risk of being held liable if they do not actively govern the corporation around the material impacts of climate change. Barker addresses the ...
Expert credibility in climate change
This study, published in 2010, aims to evaluate the extent of agreement among climate change scientists with the view of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) that “anthropogenic [caused by humans] greenhouse gases have been responsible for most of the unequivocal warming of the Earth’s average temperature over the ...
Climate change impacts and adaptation in cities
With half of the world’s population living in cities, and the proportion increasing, addressing the greenhouse gas emissions from cities on future levels of climate change, and of the effects of climate change on cities, is increasingly relevant.
The next generation of scenarios for climate change
In this paper Moss et al provide an overview of how scenarios of the future are used in climate change research to aid understanding of how changes in technology, lifestyle, and policies can address the risks of climate change, and outline a new process for developing these scenarios.
Investors' recognition of unburnable carbon
This paper analyses the reaction of the US stock market to the initial publication and subsequent media coverage of two climate change studies published in the journal Nature in 2009.
Corporate disclosure of greenhouse gas emissions
The reporting of company-wide greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is a complex undertaking for companies and currently a voluntary activity in most European countries.
Environmental and social consequences of climate change
In 2012 the UK Government’s Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs and Environment Agency (DEFRA) produced a Climate Change Risk Assessment (CCRA) evaluating the main climate-related risks and opportunities in eleven sectors in the UK, over the course of the current century to 2100.
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