IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/ehl/lserod/115100.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

Do you manage what you measure? Investor views on the question of climate actions with empirical results from the Swiss pension fund and insurance sector

Author

Listed:
  • Thomä, Jakob
  • Murray, Clare
  • Jerosch-Herold, Vincent
  • Magdanz, Janina

Abstract

Despite the political mandate of Article 2.1(c) of the Paris Agreement (United Nations 2015. ‘Adoption of the Paris Agreement.’ 21st Conference of the Parties, Paris, United Nations, 2) to align finance flows ‘with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development,’ many investors do not manage physical and transitional climate risks. The Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures’ 2019 Status Report highlighted this asymmetry. The following paperseeks to evaluate the efficacy of informing investors about the alignment of their portfolios with the Paris Agreement. Based on survey feedback from a 2017 pilot study conducted with Swiss pension funds and insurance companies, the results suggest that after the pilot 40% of respondents implemented a climate strategy or integrated climate criteria into their investment process, showing the potential impact of climate assessments on portfolio strategy. This fact affirms both the positives of portfolio climate assessments, but also the need to explore alternatives avenues for engaging with investors regarding climate risks.

Suggested Citation

  • Thomä, Jakob & Murray, Clare & Jerosch-Herold, Vincent & Magdanz, Janina, 2019. "Do you manage what you measure? Investor views on the question of climate actions with empirical results from the Swiss pension fund and insurance sector," LSE Research Online Documents on Economics 115100, London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library.
    • Handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:115100
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://eprints.lse.ac.uk/115100/
    File Function: Open access version.
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Cory Searcy, 2012. "Corporate Sustainability Performance Measurement Systems: A Review and Research Agenda," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 107(3), pages 239-253, May.
    2. Christophe McGlade & Paul Ekins, 2015. "The geographical distribution of fossil fuels unused when limiting global warming to 2 °C," Nature, Nature, vol. 517(7533), pages 187-190, January.
    3. Toby Lowe, 2013. "New development: The paradox of outcomes—the more we measure, the less we understand," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 33(3), pages 213-216, May.
    4. Jane Broadbent, 2007. "If You Can't Measure It, How Can You Manage It? Management and Governance in Higher Educational Institutions," Public Money & Management, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 27(3), pages 193-198, June.
    5. Ronald Hill & Thomas Ainscough & Todd Shank & Daryl Manullang, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility and Socially Responsible Investing: A Global Perspective," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 70(2), pages 165-174, January.
    6. Kris M. Y. Law & Marko Kesti, 2014. "From Theory to Practice," Springer Books, in: Yin Yang and Organizational Performance, edition 127, chapter 0, pages 33-55, Springer.
    7. Jakob Thomä & Hugues Chenet, 2017. "Transition risks and market failure: a theoretical discourse on why financial models and economic agents may misprice risk related to the transition to a low-carbon economy," Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 7(1), pages 82-98, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Venturini, Alessio, 2022. "Climate change, risk factors and stock returns: A review of the literature," International Review of Financial Analysis, Elsevier, vol. 79(C).
    2. Louis Daumas, 2021. "Should we fear transition risks - A review of the applied literature," Working Papers 2021.05, FAERE - French Association of Environmental and Resource Economists.
    3. Gong, Xu & Song, Yijie & Fu, Chengbo & Li, Huijing, 2023. "Climate risk and stock performance of fossil fuel companies: An international analysis," Journal of International Financial Markets, Institutions and Money, Elsevier, vol. 89(C).
    4. Joaquín Bernal-Ramírez & Jair Ojeda-Joya & Camila Agudelo-Rivera & Felipe Clavijo-Ramírez & Carolina Durana-Ángel & Clark Granger-Castaño & Daniel Osorio-Rodríguez & Daniel Parra-Amado & José Pulido &, 2022. "Impacto macroeconómico del cambio climático en Colombia," Revista ESPE - Ensayos sobre Política Económica, Banco de la Republica de Colombia, issue 102, pages 1-62, July.
    5. Erik G. Hansen & Stefan Schaltegger, 2018. "Sustainability Balanced Scorecards and their Architectures: Irrelevant or Misunderstood?," Journal of Business Ethics, Springer, vol. 150(4), pages 937-952, July.
    6. Fiaz Ahmad Sulehri & Saba Sharif, 2022. "The Impact of Firm Sustainability on Firm Growth: Evidence from USA," Journal of Policy Research (JPR), Research Foundation for Humanity (RFH), vol. 8(2), pages 1-15, August.
    7. Waldemar Karpa & Antonio Grginović, 2021. "(Not So) Stranded: The Case of Coal in Poland," Energies, MDPI, vol. 14(24), pages 1-16, December.
    8. Vasiliki Tzelepi & Myrto Zeneli & Dimitrios-Sotirios Kourkoumpas & Emmanouil Karampinis & Antonios Gypakis & Nikos Nikolopoulos & Panagiotis Grammelis, 2020. "Biomass Availability in Europe as an Alternative Fuel for Full Conversion of Lignite Power Plants: A Critical Review," Energies, MDPI, vol. 13(13), pages 1-26, July.
    9. Simon Dikau & Nick Robins & Matthias Täger, 2019. "Building a sustainable financial system: the state of practice and future priorities," Financial Stability Review, Banco de España, issue Autumn.
    10. Bretschger, Lucas, 2021. "Getting the Costs of Environmental Protection Right: Why Climate Policy Is Inexpensive in the End," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 188(C).
    11. Agarwala, Matthew & Burke, Matt & Klusak, Patrycja & Mohaddes, Kamiar & Volz, Ulrich & Zenghelis, Dimitri, 2021. "Climate Change And Fiscal Sustainability: Risks And Opportunities," National Institute Economic Review, National Institute of Economic and Social Research, vol. 258, pages 28-46, November.
    12. Yusifzada, Tural, 2022. "Response of Inflation to the Climate Stress: Evidence from Azerbaijan," MPRA Paper 116522, University Library of Munich, Germany, revised 20 Sep 2022.
    13. Gustav Engström & Johan Gars, 2016. "Climatic Tipping Points and Optimal Fossil-Fuel Use," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 65(3), pages 541-571, November.
    14. Irina – Eugenia IAMANDI & Andreea Raluca CARAGIN, & Alina CHICIUDEAN & Mihaela Cristina DRAGOI, 2007. "Corporate Social Responsibility – Analysing Social and Financial Performance The Case of Romania," European Research Studies Journal, European Research Studies Journal, vol. 0(3-4), pages 19-30.
    15. Konrad, Kai A. & Lommerud, Kjell Erik, 2021. "Effective climate policy needs non-combustion uses for hydrocarbons," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 157(C).
    16. Antoine GODIN & Emanuele CAMPIGLIO & Eric KEMP-BENEDICT, 2017. "Networks of stranded assets: A case for a balance sheet approach," Working Paper d51a41b5-00ba-40b4-abe6-5, Agence française de développement.
    17. Insley, Margaret, 2017. "Resource extraction with a carbon tax and regime switching prices: Exercising your options," Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 67(C), pages 1-16.
    18. Linnenluecke, Martina K. & Smith, Tom & McKnight, Brent, 2016. "Environmental finance: A research agenda for interdisciplinary finance research," Economic Modelling, Elsevier, vol. 59(C), pages 124-130.
    19. Vanita Tripathi & Amanpreet Kaur, 2022. "Does Socially Responsible Investing Pay in Developing Countries? A Comparative Study Across Select Developed and Developing Markets," FIIB Business Review, , vol. 11(2), pages 189-205, June.
    20. Xavier GALIEGUE & Audrey LAUDE, 2017. "Combining Geothermal Energy and CCS: from the Transformation to the Reconfiguration of a Socio-Technical Regime? à paraître dan s Energy procedia," LEO Working Papers / DR LEO 2476, Orleans Economics Laboratory / Laboratoire d'Economie d'Orleans (LEO), University of Orleans.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    climate change; Impact; pension funds; portfolio management;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • F3 - International Economics - - International Finance
    • G3 - Financial Economics - - Corporate Finance and Governance

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:ehl:lserod:115100. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: LSERO Manager (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/lsepsuk.html .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.