I en ny artikel skriver Robeco om forskningsresultater for et nyt mål for klimarisiko – kulstof beta – som blev præsenteret på en prestigefyldt National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER) konference. Robeco diskuterer dette med Joop Huij, Head of Sustainable Index Solutions hos Robeco, og Dries Laurs, Sustainable Index Solutions Researcher. I artiklen koncentrerer sig om:
- Carbon beta incorporates forward-looking information on climate risk
- The metric provides insights on firms’ preparedness (leaders versus laggards) for the transition
- It can potentially complement carbon emissions data as a portfolio climate risk control
Her er nogle udsnit fra interviewet:
What are the advantages of carbon beta compared with traditional carbon emissions data?
So what’s the most practical implication from your study?
D.L.: “There are some pertinent takeaways from our findings on carbon beta and green innovation. In line with previous research2, we confirm in our paper that green innovation is driven primarily by the energy and materials sectors. Within these industries, the more innovative firms have lower carbon betas, although they do not necessarily have lower reported carbon emissions or emission intensities. In other words, investors should not just simply divest from these high carbon emitters as these ‘green innovators’ are essential for the energy transition. Therefore, holding these types of firms is likely to lower the climate risk of a portfolio.”
“We find that some companies that look ‘clean’ based on their low reported emissions data actually have a high carbon beta. For example, some smaller firms that provide services to the oil & gas sector do not have high-carbon emitting operations, but they are economically vulnerable to a low-carbon transition. By contrast, some businesses considered to be ‘high-polluting’ based on their high reported emissions data in fact have a low carbon beta as they are better prepared for the transition. For instance, this could be due to them actively researching green technologies. A good example is a US multinational that is active in the field of power generation. Despite ranking in the top 5% of greenhouse gas emitters in our sample, it is also one of the top three issuers of green patents. Thus, its carbon beta is among the lowest in the industrials sector.”
What will Robeco do with these findings?
J.H.: “Alongside our climate strategist, Lucian Peppelenbos, we are currently investigating if carbon beta can function as an additional measure of climate risk within Robeco’s climate analytics toolkit. We believe carbon beta complements the current toolkit as it provides insights on carbon risk above and beyond those garnered from traditional carbon emissions data. Indeed, carbon beta has forward-looking information embedded in it, while carbon emissions data is backward-looking in nature. We also believe that the carbon beta metric can provide value for outlining portfolio climate risks. Whereas climate value at risk measures are based on complex, opaque models, carbon beta is a more intuitive, transparent and straightforward measure. Hence, we will also explore whether it can be integrated in Robeco’s investment strategies as a climate risk control.”
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