Current Opinion in Environmental Sustainability最新文献

This article reviews the literature on climate-related prudential regulation, identifying the most relevant articles published in the last two years. The study is situated within the recent developments of this regulation in the United States and the European Union, given the high concentration of Global Systemically Important Banks in these regions. Through this critical analysis, five emerging perspectives have been identified: compensation policy, biodiversity loss, financed emissions, systemic risk, and sustainability taxonomies. The policy implications shed light on the proliferation of voluntary initiatives that may divert from climate goals, and highlight the need for a guided transition through harmonized regulation.

This paper argues that certain erroneous premises upon which the mainstream finance paradigm is based are a structural cause of greenwashing. By scrutinizing the metatheoretical hypotheses of this paradigm through a critical realist lens, we aim to show that it rests upon on tacit representations that impose a distorted view of financial ‘knowledge’, financial systems, the Earth System, and society. This ontological bias leads to fallacious research questions, biased methodologies, and has even generated ill-advised policies that are conducive to the financialization of nature. We then put forth that critical realism could offer realistic metatheoretical foundations for the development of a new ecological finance paradigm.

The increased use of Artificial intelligence systems (AI systems) is associated with multifaceted social, environmental, and economic consequences. These include nontransparent decision-making processes, discrimination, increasing inequalities, rising energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions in AI model development and application, and an increasing concentration of economic power. By considering the multidimensionality of sustainability, this paper takes steps toward substantiating the call for an overarching perspective on ‘sustainable AI.’ It presents the Sustainability Criteria and Indicators for Artificial Intelligence Systems (SCAIS) Framework, an assessment framework that contains a set of 19 sustainability criteria for sustainable AI and 67 indicators that are based on the results of a critical literature review, and expert workshops. Its interdisciplinary approach contributes a unique holistic perspective to facilitate and structure the discourse on sustainable AI. Further, it provides a concrete assessment framework that lays the foundation for developing standards and tools to support the conscious development and application of AI systems.

Sustainable finance and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues have garnered significant attention in both industry and academia. However, the lack of consensus on these concepts has led to confusion about their impact on investors and markets, hindering the interpretation of empirical data and the development of effective regulations. This highlights the need for transparent analyses from the finance research community. By reviewing recent asset pricing literature to determine if it has effectively identified an ESG factor, the paper examines theoretical models linking ESG factors to asset performance, with differing views on whether high-ESG firms yield lower returns due to reduced risk or outperform due to sustainable practices and market sentiment. The paper also reviews empirical studies, presenting findings on whether green assets outperform brown assets in financial markets. The paper contributes to the debate on integrating ESG into investment strategies without compromising returns, providing practical insights for investors and policymakers navigating responsible investing.

The increasing recognition of the importance of climate-resilient development (CRD) for developing countries is accompanied by a further recognition of the need for financial resources to meet the need for adaptation, mitigation and sustainable development in these countries. Innovative finance sources and mechanisms are therefore recommended as a solution for scaling up climate finance to meet CRD needs in developing countries. This review article examines the alignment between innovative climate finance and CRD. It argues that the operationalisation of innovative climate finance generates misalignments with CRD principles particularly relating to how the finance is sourced, governed and allocated. This fails to align with CRD principles of ensuring transformations and transitions, equity and justice and agency and empowerment. The review article proposes an expanded and CRD-aligned understanding of innovative climate finance that improves the governance of existing climate finance flows.

Fostering climate-resilient development (CRD) in developing countries can provide opportunities to create efficient, equitable, and inclusive responses to climate change. However, we are concerned that CRD could become a one-size-fits-all approach in developing countries, despite the IPCC’s recognition that this concept can have multiple trajectories. We analyzed contributions in the international literature that provide information on the features needed to transform CRD from an attractive concept to an operational approach in these countries. We focus on shortcomings and barriers in adaptation and mitigation actions and finance to better understand the challenges CRD needs to address, and we stress the importance of political economy to successfully implement CRD.

Sustainability certification narratives are diverse contributing to multiperspective discourses on human–nature value systems. Certification shapes values at the human–nature interface, encompassing instrumental, relational, and intrinsic values. The sustainability certification debate involves four value systems: (1) economic, instrumental value; (2) social, relational value; (3) multiple values of human–nature interactions; and (4) global sustainability values for nature and commons. Despite rich narratives, questions on effectiveness and inclusiveness persist. The effectiveness of certification schemes relies on counterfactuals, and positive impacts occur when embracing inclusivity in supply chains. Accountability at the landscape level aligns with common-but-differentiated responsibility targets. This article reviews multidisciplinary literature on value-for-nature systems, highlighting narrative gaps in sustainability certification’s intended impacts, and providing policy recommendations.

The race for economic development worldwide is being brought at the expense of the rapid depletion of natural resources and adverse environmental changes. This has brought our attention to the global urgency of climate change. To overcome this problem, drastic changes are required in our way of living, including consumption, transportation, and production. This requires green innovation flourished by finance (also known as green finance [GF]). Considering this, we conducted a thematic analysis of the previous strand of literature that presents evidence that finance supports green innovation in different phases of life. Our thematic analysis was threefold: 1) we explored the theoretical lens adopted by recent studies in exploring the causal effect of finance in promoting green innovation, 2) we identified the scope of these studies in terms of environmental outcomes covered by them, we called them research themes in this study, and 3) based on our thematic analysis, we highlighted areas needing greater attention by academicians and practitioners. We found that GF positively impacts the firm's green innovation. The main reason discussed in the literature is that the dedicated resource availability for green innovative projects helps to minimize the constraints on funds for innovative projects. One stream of literature also highlights the rise of greenwashing as managers only use these funds for publicity, however, they are not fully committed to sustainability goals. This review provides valuable suggestions to academicians and practitioners regarding effective financial resource usage to progress toward achieving sustainability goals.

Climate-related risks for the financial sector have been discussed since the then-Governor of the Bank of England mentioned these risks as the tragedy of the horizon. Shortly after, research about stress-testing the impact of climate change on the financial sector was published. They use various methods that address the climate-related Value-at Risk and other financial risks. We conducted a systematic literature analysis in Scopus and analyzed the data using VOSViewer. In addition, we analyzed the most cited papers in detail. Our analyses found that stress testing, as a sustainable finance risk management tool to address financial stability, connects climate change with financial risks. Different stress-testing approaches found significant climate-related financial impacts on equity and loan portfolios. We conclude that research is needed to guarantee reliable, valid, and standardized climate-related stress testing.

Environmental impact bonds (EIBs) are innovative financial models included in the toolbox of impact investing that focus on environmental challenges. Recently, they have received an increasing amount of attention, in line with the expansion of environmental finance research. However, to date, there is no complete knowledge on this topic, either in theory or in practice. This article offers a concise view of the EIB landscape, based on a literature review, through the analysis of the structure and the evolution of the research field, as well as challenges and research opportunities. The results provide a roadmap for future directions, which is useful to help academics focus their studies on underinvestigated areas within this research niche.