IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/p/rff/dpaper/dp-11-01-efd.html
   My bibliography  Save this paper

A Market for Environmentally Responsible Investment? Identifying Obstacles and Enablers of Commodification of Environmental Risks in the South African Investment Industry

Author

Listed:
  • Giamporcaro, Stephanie

Abstract

This paper analyzes the views of South African investment organizations on the likelihood of commodification of environmental risks in their investment decision processes. It is based on an empirical qualitative survey of 22 investment organizations, which are signatories to the United Nations’ Principles for Responsible Investment. We describe a range of issues, identified by the investment players interviewed, that are likely to prevent or accelerate the internalization of environmental risks in the South African investment industry. The chance that broader commodification of the South African investment industry will occur—beyond the growing but still small ranks of responsible investors—seems to be linked to realization of an adequate political framing. This means legislating standardized environmental disclosure by corporations and a long-term commitment by institutional investors to responsible investment philosophies. The tension between social developmental goals and environmental goals is seen as a major political obstacle at the national level.

Suggested Citation

  • Giamporcaro, Stephanie, 2011. "A Market for Environmentally Responsible Investment? Identifying Obstacles and Enablers of Commodification of Environmental Risks in the South African Investment Industry," RFF Working Paper Series dp-11-01-efd, Resources for the Future.
  • Handle: RePEc:rff:dpaper:dp-11-01-efd
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.rff.org/RFF/documents/EfD-DP-11-01.pdf
    Download Restriction: no
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Catherine Aaron & Isabelle Bilon & Sébastien Galanti & Yamina Tadjeddine, 2005. "Les styles de gestion de portefeuille existent-ils ?," Revue d'Économie Financière, Programme National Persée, vol. 81(4), pages 171-188.
    2. Xavier Basurto & Elinor Ostrom, 2009. "Beyond the tragedy of the Commons," ECONOMICS AND POLICY OF ENERGY AND THE ENVIRONMENT, FrancoAngeli Editore, vol. 0(1), pages 35-60.
    3. Dick Bryan & Michael Rafferty, 2006. "Capitalism with Derivatives," Palgrave Macmillan Books, Palgrave Macmillan, number 978-0-230-50154-6, December.
    4. repec:dau:papers:123456789/3030 is not listed on IDEAS
    5. Boyer, Robert & Orlean, Andre, 1992. "How Do Conventions Evolve?," Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Springer, vol. 2(3), pages 165-177, October.
    6. Elinor Ostrom, 2014. "A Polycentric Approach For Coping With Climate Change," Annals of Economics and Finance, Society for AEF, vol. 15(1), pages 97-134, May.
    7. Isabelle Huault & Hélène Rainelli-Le Montagner, 2008. "A market for weather risk ? Worlds in conflict and compromising," Post-Print halshs-00340048, HAL.
    8. Dan Sonnenberg & Ralph Hamann, 2006. "The JSE socially responsible investment index and the state of sustainability reporting in South Africa," Development Southern Africa, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 23(2), pages 305-320.
    9. Michel Callon & Yuval Millo & Fabian Muniesa, 2007. "Market Devices," Post-Print halshs-00177891, HAL.
    10. Donald MacKenzie, 2006. "An Engine, Not a Camera: How Financial Models Shape Markets," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 0262134608, April.
    11. Giamporcaro, Stephanie & Pretorius, Lise & Visser, Martine, 2010. "Responsible Investment: A Vehicle for Environmentally Sustainable Economic Growth in South Africa," RFF Working Paper Series dp-10-17-efd, Resources for the Future.
    12. Braun, Marcel, 2009. "The evolution of emissions trading in the European Union - The role of policy networks, knowledge and policy entrepreneurs," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(3-4), pages 469-487, April.
    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. Andriani, Pierpaolo & Herrmann-Pillath, Carsten, 2011. "Performing comparative advantage: The case of the global coffee business," Frankfurt School - Working Paper Series 167, Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.
    2. Antoine Ducastel & Ward Anseeuw, 2017. "Agriculture as an asset class: reshaping the South African farming sector," Agriculture and Human Values, Springer;The Agriculture, Food, & Human Values Society (AFHVS), vol. 34(1), pages 199-209, March.
    3. Aspers, Patrik, 2009. "How are markets made?," MPIfG Working Paper 09/2, Max Planck Institute for the Study of Societies.
    4. repec:spo:wpmain:info:hdl:2441/5roa67nl3t9vmaafofq0ug2d9d is not listed on IDEAS
    5. repec:hal:spmain:info:hdl:2441/5roa67nl3t9vmaafofq0ug2d9d is not listed on IDEAS
    6. Krarup, Troels, 2016. "Economic discourse and the European integration of financial infrastructures and financial markets," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 16/2, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    7. Christel Dumas & Céline Louche, 2016. "Collective beliefs for responsible investment," Post-Print hal-01183744, HAL.
    8. Millo, Yuval & MacKenzie, Donald, 2009. "The usefulness of inaccurate models: Towards an understanding of the emergence of financial risk management," Accounting, Organizations and Society, Elsevier, vol. 34(5), pages 638-653, July.
    9. Mélodie Cartel & Franck Aggeri & Marine Agogué, 2012. "Enabling Performativity In 'Skunk Labs': The Untold Story Of Carbon Markets Design," Post-Print hal-01089489, HAL.
    10. Diane-Laure Arjaliès, 2011. "Exploring the role of objects in the transformation of logics: a practice perspective," Working Papers hal-00633462, HAL.
    11. Boussard, Valérie & Godechot, Olivier & Woloszko, Nicolas, 2016. "How to make a deal: The role of rankings and personal ties in creating trust in the M&A market," MaxPo Discussion Paper Series 16/3, Max Planck Sciences Po Center on Coping with Instability in Market Societies (MaxPo).
    12. Suaste Cherizola, Jesús, 2021. "From Commodities to Assets: Capital as Power and the Ontology of Finance," Review of Capital as Power, Capital As Power - Toward a New Cosmology of Capitalism, vol. 2(1), pages 1-29.
    13. Charles Roger & Thomas Hale & Liliana Andonova, 2017. "The Comparative Politics of Transnational Climate Governance," International Interactions, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 43(1), pages 1-25, January.
    14. Matthew Zook & Michael H Grote, 2017. "The microgeographies of global finance: High-frequency trading and the construction of information inequality," Environment and Planning A, , vol. 49(1), pages 121-140, January.
    15. Luis Suarez‐Villa, 2009. "The Dismal Science: How Thinking Like an Economist Undermines Community – By Stephen A. Marglin," Growth and Change, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 40(3), pages 533-541, September.
    16. de Melo, Jaime & Vijil, Mariana, 2014. "Barriers to Trade in Environmental Goods and Environmental Services: How Important Are They? How Much Progress at Reducing Them?," Climate Change and Sustainable Development 172425, Fondazione Eni Enrico Mattei (FEEM).
    17. Leonard Goke & Jens Weibezahn & Christian von Hirschhausen, 2021. "A collective blueprint, not a crystal ball: How expectations and participation shape long-term energy scenarios," Papers 2112.04821, arXiv.org, revised Dec 2022.
    18. Daniel Fitzpatrick & Rebecca Monson, 2022. "Property rights and climate migration: Adaptive governance in the South Pacific," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 16(2), pages 519-535, April.
    19. Johnstone, David & Havyatt, David, 2022. "Sophistry and high electricity prices in Australia," CRITICAL PERSPECTIVES ON ACCOUNTING, Elsevier, vol. 88(C).
    20. N. Jones & J. Clark, 2014. "Social capital and the public acceptability of climate change adaptation policies: a case study in Romney Marsh, UK," Climatic Change, Springer, vol. 123(2), pages 133-145, March.
    21. Carattini, Stefano & Fankhauser, Sam & Gao, Jianjian & Gennaioli, Caterina & Panzarasa, Pietro, 2023. "What does network analysis teach us about international environmental cooperation?," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 205(C).
    22. Sebastian Levi & Christian Flachsland & Michael Jakob, 2020. "Political Economy Determinants of Carbon Pricing," Global Environmental Politics, MIT Press, vol. 20(2), pages 128-156, May.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    commodification; political framing; calculative framing; conventions; environmental risks; responsible investment;
    All these keywords.

    JEL classification:

    • Z13 - Other Special Topics - - Cultural Economics - - - Economic Sociology; Economic Anthropology; Language; Social and Economic Stratification
    • G23 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Non-bank Financial Institutions; Financial Instruments; Institutional Investors
    • G28 - Financial Economics - - Financial Institutions and Services - - - Government Policy and Regulation
    • H23 - Public Economics - - Taxation, Subsidies, and Revenue - - - Externalities; Redistributive Effects; Environmental Taxes and Subsidies

    NEP fields

    This paper has been announced in the following NEP Reports:

    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:rff:dpaper:dp-11-01-efd. 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: Resources for the Future (email available below). General contact details of provider: https://edirc.repec.org/data/rffffus.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.