Governance and Climate Change: A Success Story in Mobilizing Investor Support for Corporate Responses to Climate Change

Until fairly recently, the main approach to getting business to respond to climate change has been top‐down efforts to regulate emissions and enact various forms of “carbon pricing.” The aim of such efforts has been to make businesses “internalize” the costs associated with greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions. Governments are expected to set the environmental protection rules for companies in their respective countries, and markets are expected to adjust to the new regulations and carbon prices. But this classical approach to economic policy does not work when applied to a global “public goods” challenge like trying to limit the extent and effects of climate change. Instead of a top‐down approach, in which economic actors are forced to respond to regulations imposed on them, the Paris climate agreement of 2015 was reached using a bottom‐up approach centered on the concept of Intended Nationally Determined Contributions (INDCs)—along with a process that ended up encouraging the participation of all economic actors, not just governments. The authors provide an account of how the Paris agreement was reached, and why the “Portfolio Decarbonization Coalition” under the auspices of the United Nations is the most important of several private‐sector initiatives that are changing the way corporations operate. Thanks in large part to the PDC, investors can now undertake meaningful corporate governance action on climate change. With GHG emissions from a particular companies’ operations now much easier to measure, objective performance metrics on GHG emissions can now be set by boards and verified by shareholders. And current decarbonized indexes can be used as performance benchmarks for asset managers’ compensation, which can be tied to return outperformance relative to a “decarbonized” index.     

气候变化与低碳投资机遇及战略

全球气候变化会带来"低碳"投资主题和业务机遇,由于气候变化资产回报率高且与传统资产之间的相关性适中,在传统组合中加入气候变化资产将进一步优化资产组合,改善组合的回报与风险结构.可以运用诸如债券、股票、私募股权、房地产以及基础设施投资等资产类型来捕获气候变化投资机会.在气候变化条件下,投资管理业应采取积极的应对和发展战略,尤其是要改进对公司的估值评估方法,充分考虑气候变化对公司价值的潜在影响.     

The Fisher Equation: A Nonlinear Panel Data Approach

This article reinvestigates the Fisher equation. Using the panel smooth transition regression (PSTR) model, it was found that there is a significant regime-switching effect concerning the impact of inflation on interest rates. Specifically, inflation is found to raise the interest rates and the effect becomes stronger in magnitude with inflation. However, the data do not provide evidence in support of the one-for-one Fisher effect. The evidence is robust to interest rates with different maturities and subsamples.     

Strategic Responses to Changing Climate Change Policies: The Role Played by Carbon Accounting

Using a broad institutional theory lens, this paper examines the climate change strategies and carbon accounting practices adopted by two New Zealand electricity firms in response to changes in government climate change policies over time (2002–12). The two firms pursue different strategic responses to climate change‐related institutional and economic pressures in order to maintain both legitimacy and a competitive advantage. Five different strategic responses are identified: avoidance, operational conformance, strategic conformance, strategic differentiation, negotiation and manipulation. Firm‐level characteristics are also important drivers of inter‐firm variations in the strategic responses. Further, carbon accounting makes the greatest contribution to carbon reduction when integrated as part of strategic processes that support strategic conformance and strategic differentiation. Carbon monitoring systems, internal carbon information use and carbon disclosure were the main forms of carbon accounting used to realise the different strategies employed.     

Socially Responsible Investing and Climate Change: Contradictions and Challenges

This article explores the contradiction between the articulated investment policies, screening criteria or ethical charters of socially responsible investment funds and their actions demonstrated by their portfolio selection practice. The paper provides a background to socially responsible investment and Australia's contribution to greenhouse gas emissions. A discussion of renewable energy options lays the foundation for our main assertion: that this set of possible alternatives provides some new and more environmentally robust options that will better complement the underlying philosophy of funds in the socially responsible investment sector.     

Climate Change Policy in Australia: Organisational Responses and Influences

This paper uses a case study approach to examine (a) the nature of organisational responses to climate change policy using the Kolk and Pinkse (2004, 2005) typology; and (b) key drivers for action on climate change. We find evidence consistent with the evolution of responses from setting emission targets (cautious planners, emergent planners) to process innovation and product development (internal explorers). The exception to such linear development is horizontal explorers, who explore competitive opportunities in markets outside their current business. Key drivers for action include managerial perceptions of business opportunities, product differentiation and an implicit regard for the environment. Major impediments include uncertainty about the detail of climate change policy and managerial perceptions of business risk. At present, the intended strategic trading behaviour of the case organisations is best described as muted. However, the national institutional environment of which a liberal market economy and a carbon service industry are key, appear conducive to the future acceptance and active adoption of emissions trading in Australia.     

气候变化对金融稳定和货币政策的影响综述

本文选取西部地区2004-2018年12个省区市的面板数据,运用面板数据模型分析方法,基于协整分析对人力资本积累、金融发展与经济增长之间的关系进行了实证分析。研究结果表明：西部各省金融发展与人力资本积累对经济发展的影响存在着显著的内部差异。基于此,本文提出实施西部地区人才开发战略、金融发展战略及出台配套相关制度法律等方面对策建议。     

Hu Jintao's Speech on Climate Change (abridged)

Mr.Secretary-General, dear colleagues, Global climate change has a profound impact on the survival and development of mankind. It is a major challenge facing all countries.I wish to highlight a few principles that we need to follow in our common endeavor to tackle this issue of climate change.     

Multi-Tier Targeting of Social Assistance: The Role of Intergovernmental Transfers

Albania provides a small amount of social assistance to nearly20 percent of its population through a system that allows somecommunity discretion in determining distribution. This studyinvestigates how well this social assistance program is targetedto the poor. Relative to other safety net programs in low-incomecountries, social assistance in Albania is fairly well targeted.Nevertheless, the system is hampered by the absence of a clear,objective criterion to determine the size of the grants fromthe central government to communes as well as limited informationthat could be used to implement this criterion. Substantialgains in targeting could be achieved if the central governmentbetter allocated transfers to local governments, even holdinglocal targeting at base levels.     

外商直接投资对我国就业的影响:基于面板VAR的分析

本文运用面板VAR方法研究外商直接投资对国内就业、工资的动态影响。研究发现，外商直接投资对我国工资水平的提高没有显著作用；对我国就业水平的影响有正向影响，但程度非常有限；外商直接投资的变动没有说明在岗职工工资和就业的扰动；动态地看，在岗职工人数对外商直接投资冲击反应总体上是负向的，尽管程度非常有限；而工资水平对外商直接投资冲击反应是正向的，但程度也是非常有限，但长期来看这种影响会越来越大。     

Hu Jintao＇ s Speech on Climate Change（abridged）

Mr. Secretary-General, dear colleagues, Global climate change has a profound impact on the survival and development of mankind. It is a major challenge facing all countries.l wish to highlight a few principles that we need to follow in our common endeavor to tackle this issue of climate change.     

The structure of the global reinsurance market: An analysis of efficiency,scale, and scope

We estimate economies of scale and scope as well as cost and revenue efficiency to explain the structure of the global reinsurance market, where large reinsurers dominate but both diversified and specialized reinsurers are competitive. The costs and benefits of size and product diversification are particularly relevant to the reinsurance industry, as risk diversification is central to the industry's business model. We find that reinsurers with total assets less than USD 2.9 billion exhibit scale economies, while those with total assets greater than USD 15.5 billion do not. Large reinsurers are characterized by high cost efficiency, while small reinsurers exhibit superior efficiency only when specialized. Large reinsurers also exhibit revenue scope economies when operating both life and nonlife reinsurance. Moreover, the evidence is in line with the efficient structure hypothesis: cost-efficient reinsurers can charge lower prices without sacrificing profitability.