Climate and Biodiversity Finance

Climate change and biodiversity conservation stand out as two of the most daunting and urgent challenges confronting our planet. Within this context, researchers in focus area explore the integration of climate and biodiversity related risks and evaluate how such risks are already influencing actors in industry and finance.

This research focus area delves into the methodologies employed by financial institutions to gauge, evaluate, and mitigate climate and biodiversity risks, while also pinpointing behavioral aspects that affect decision-making. 

Dr. Chiara Colesanti Senni is a post-doctoral researcher at the University of Zurich in the fields of environmental risks, financial supervision, and monetary policy. During her PhD at ETH Zurich, she focused on the transition to a low-carbon economy, including the possibility for central banks to adopt emission-based interest rates in their lending facilities. 

Learn more about this research focus:Nature Risk Pricing

Do Investors Care About Biodiversity? 
Alexandre Garel, Arthur Romec, Zacharias Sautner, and Alexander F. Wagner
Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 23-24 (2023)

The Importance of Climate Risks for Institutional Investors
Philipp Krueger, Zacharias Sautner, and Laura T. Starks
Swiss Finance Institute Research Paper No. 18-58 (2019)

Firm-level Climate Change Exposure
Zacharias Sautner,  Laurence van Lent, Grigory Vilkov,  and Ruishen Zhang
Journal of Finance (forthcoming)

Carbon Tail Risk
Emirhan Ilhan, Zacharias Sautner, and Grigory Vilkov
The Review of Financial Studies (2020)

Investor Rewards to Climate Responsibility: Stock-Price Responses to the Opposite Shocks of the 2016 and 2020 U.S. Elections
Stefano Ramelli, Alexander F. Wagner, Richard J. Zeckhauser, Alexandre Ziegler