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Doctor in Philosophy (DPhil/PhD) in Sustainable Finance topics

Course overview

Each year the Oxford Sustainable Finance Programme supervises or co-supervises Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil/PhD) students on sustainable finance topics.

Students apply to the DPhil in Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. The DPhil is the University of Oxford’s premier research degree, awarded to candidates who have successfully completed a major piece of original research. The course provides support and an intellectual environment to pursue your own independent research.

Course structure and content

The DPhil is offered as either a full-time three- to four-year degree, or a part-time six- to eight-year degree. Currently the expected contact time for the part-time arrangement is thirty days at Oxford per year; the majority of this will take place across the three eight-week terms and will include supervision meetings and core research training.

Teaching and assessment

The DPhil is an advanced research degree which is awarded on the basis of a thesis and oral examination (assessment of other work is not taken into consideration). The thesis should represent a significant and substantial piece of research which is conveyed in a lucid and scholarly manner which shows that you have a good general knowledge of the field of your thesis. You are required to work independently, to take the initiative in exploring a line of research and to acquire new skills in order to carry out your research. You will be allocated a supervisor who will meet with you at specifically agreed times and will agree with you a research plan and programme of work and to establish clear academic expectations and milestones.

Entry requirements, fees and application

Degree-level qualifications

As a minimum, applicants should hold or be predicted to achieve the equivalent of the following UK qualifications:

• a master’s degree with distinction (or a distinction grade on the dissertation, as a minimum) in geography or a related environmental field,  and
• a first-class or strong upper second-class undergraduate degree with honours in any discipline.

For applicants with a degree from the USA, the minimum GPA sought is 3.7 out of 4.0.

You are encouraged to look at the department lists of  potential supervisors and topics  before writing your research proposal and to approach specific supervisors directly to discuss your research proposal before applying.

Career opportunities

Many graduates are commanding influential positions in multinational corporations, in national, state and international government, in non-governmental organisations, and by continuing with further research.

For course related inquiries please contact:

• [email protected]

Course Features

• Host Institution University of Oxford
• Department / Institute School of Geography and the Environment
• Course Name Doctor in Philosophy (DPhil/PhD) in Sustainable Finance topics
• Course Type Degree program
• Course Mode Full time or part time
• Location Oxford
• Course Language English
• Course Level Doctoral
• Duration 3 years
• For information on course fees please see university website.

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Training current and future leaders is one of our theories of change. We offer a full range of programmes, including both open-enrolment executive and customised programmes delivered in-person, online, and blended, as well as undergraduate and graduate teaching and supervision for students enrolled at the University of Oxford.

Degree awarding

Doctor in philosophy (dphil/phd).

Each year the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group supervises or co-supervises Doctor of Philosophy (DPhil/PhD) students on sustainable finance topics. Students apply to the DPhil in Geography and the Environment at the University of Oxford. The DPhil is the University of Oxford’s premier research degree, awarded to candidates who have successfully completed a major piece of original research. The course provides support and an intellectual environment to pursue your own independent research.

Modules, Options, or Electives within degree awarding courses

The MSc Sustainability, Enterprise and the Environment addresses two pervasive and unmet challenges of our time: making the transition to a zero-carbon and environmentally sustainable economic model, whilst simultaneously enabling sustainable development for everyone, poor and rich alike. The course views these challenges through the lenses of finance, economics and enterprise – both public and private – whilst also leveraging the environmental, systems, and data sciences.   Sustainable finance is a mandatory core module as part of the MSc.

Find Out More >

– Sustainable finance is available as an optional elective for all students enrolled in MSc/MPhil degrees in the School of Geography and the Environment.

The Oxford Geography degree provides a holistic view of the workings of physical and human environments, the ways in which humans are transforming the world and the implications for human societies. Students are introduced to the full range of geographical topics in the foundational courses, which they can then follow up in more detail in the optional papers, shaping their programme to match their developing interests. Sustainable finance is available as an optional second or third year Final Honour School option .

Oxford Sustainable Finance Student Society

Executive Education and other non-degree awarding courses

The Public and Third Sector Academy for Sustainable Finance (‘P3S Academy’)

P3S Academy is a global centre of learning and capacity building focused on how the public and third sectors can grasp the opportunities associated with sustainable finance.

Established in 2021, the P3S Academy supports central and local government, regulators, supervisory authorities, multilateral institutions, campaigning NGOs, charities, and philanthropy. We are building a full spectrum of capacity building activities in relation to sustainable finance and have a  portfolio  of in person, online and blended learning programmes, masterclasses, workshops, events, and more that will be open to individuals, teams and organisations. Many of these course are free or heavily subsidised for participants from the public and third sectors.

Oxford Sustainable Finance Executive Programme

Launched in 2016 and designed to be the premier executive programme on sustainable finance globally. A five-day residential workshop at the University of Oxford, the programme is an introduction to sustainable finance for professionals working across a range of sectors. It equips participants with essential knowledge the of principles and concepts, as well as an advanced understanding of the latest developments. The programme attracts the best and brightest current and future leaders from a diverse range of sectors and delivers a unique in-person experience that equips them with the knowledge and networks required to undertake significant future work on sustainable finance. 

Oxford Climate-related Financial Risk Programme

Measuring and managing climate-related financial risks is critical for institutions across the financial system. This three-day programme is designed to equip individuals from financial institutions and regulators, government officials, and corporate strategists with the latest understanding of climate risks.

Oxford Programme on Net Zero Aligned Offsetting

On this programme, participants will explore principles of net zero aligned offsetting, the state and trends of offsetting projects, the role of investor coalitions, engagement campaigns, removals budgets, policy trends and developments for compliance and voluntary markets, examine case studies of net zero aligned offsetting in practice, as well as study societal impacts and perceptions of offsetting, and the increasing prevalence of greenwashing, greenhushing and greeenwishing.

Stewardship and Engagement Leadership Programme

The programme will provide participants with a range of tools for engagement escalation and for robust evaluation of outcomes and impacts. The programme is grounded in real-world examples of stewardship, and participants will engage in practical exercises to apply and develop their stewardship capabilities.

Sustainable Finance: ESG and the Future of Finance

Developed in partnership with Pearson, this sustainable finance online course is designed to equip you with the skills and knowledge needed to accelerate impactful and sustainable change.

Oxford Social Finance Programme

Helps participants build and negotiate multi-sector partnerships and combine capital sources. They will learn directly from world leaders in blended finance, and be shown how these leaders structure deals to achieve large scale positive impact.

Customised programmes

We have significant experience in designing and delivering customised executive education programme. These programmes are underpinned by cutting-edge research and delivered by world-leading faculty and expert practitioners from across Oxford’s networks. We have worked with clients from a multitude of geographies and sectors, and are able to tailor solutions for different layers within organisations (including, at board level.)   

Our programmes can be designed to enable participants to engage critically with a number of systems and theories in sustainable finance and investment such as; active ownership, the carbon bubble, climate finance, conservation finance, disclosure, divestment, engagement, ESG, green banks, green bonds, green benchmarks and indices, impact investing, public private partnerships, reporting, responsible investment, stranded assets, green taxonomies, and more. Beyond these areas, we can speak to the wider sustainability and ESG agenda through resources and capabilities at Oxford.

Please contact Johney Fatimaharan for more information: [email protected]

Recent customised programmes we have developed include:

• A multi-cohort green finance programme for policy makers delivered in North America, Southeast Asia, Australasia and Latin America;
• A bespoke programme for senior leaders and the executive committee at a multi-national financial services company;
• A bespoke programme for a professional services firm that were seeker a deeper understanding of ESG.

GENEVA GRADUATE INSTITUTE

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[email protected] + 41 22 908 58 98  

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[email protected] +41 22 908 57 54  

[email protected] + 41 22 908 57 55

The Swiss Lab for Sustainable Finance: PhD Research on Sustainable Finance

The Swiss Lab for Sustainable Finance offers the opportunity to research Sustainable Finance under both PhD Programmes.

The Swiss Lab for Sustainable Finance is a multistakeholder and transdisciplinary research center that aims to advance sustainable finance research and practice focusing on financing the SDG goals, impact measurement and ESG regulation, and will produce research that can be applied to their fulfillment. The Lab will train the next generation of social scientists in sustainable finance. We encourage applications to research in this area under the two PhD programmes we offer:

International Economics: ESG is on the top of the agendas of central banks, regulators as well as financial firms globally. Climate risks and climate policies will increasingly affect economies and financial markets. Policy makers need to understand these effects on distribution, growth and inflation among others. The interaction between climate, monetary, financial and fiscal policies will be key research topics for the foreseeable future ;

Development Economics: Sustainable development is on top of the agenda of international organizations and governments as well as a growing area of investment in the financial sector. Finance is key to achieving these goals. Open research questions relate to measurement of impact, the development of markets for sustainable finance, the interaction between environment and society, and the effect of finance on well-being, inequality, and inclusion.

Link to the SWISS LAB FOR SUSTAINABLE FINANCE

Sustainable Finance and Investment

Ensure your investment strategies are driven by environmental, social, and governance factors..

With increasing pressure from regulators, investors, and consumers, sustainable finance has moved from a niche concept to a globally recognized strategic priority. 1 This form of financial services, which addresses environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors in investment decisions, is key to addressing some of our global challenges and helping professionals and organizations achieve long-term profitability and success. 

The Sustainable Finance and Investment online program explores this rising industry and gives you the skills to navigate the terminology, activity, drivers, and participants of the ESG ecosystem. Developed by the Yale School of Management Executive Education and guided by the school’s mission to educate leaders for business and society, this online program prepares you to harness ESG data to drive financial performance and investment strategies. You’ll explore the challenges of ESG factors within the context of investment decision-making, as well as its effect on asset pricing and portfolio management models. Using data, you’ll learn to assess the impact of an investment, and examine the role of ESG in debt, novel fixed-income products, and private equity investments.

How does this program differ from the Corporate Sustainability Management: Risk, Profit, and Purpose online program?

The Sustainable Finance and Investment online program focuses primarily on equipping you to make more informed analyses and decisions when investing in sustainable assets and products. The Corporate Sustainability Management: Risk, Profit, and Purpose online program, on the other hand, is designed to help you embed sustainability and sustainable practices into the core of your business strategies.

1 EY (Jan, 2021)

Program Dates

Registration closes: April 09, 2024

Start date: April 17, 2024

Program Details

Length: 6 weeks (excluding orientation), online

Commitment: 5–8 hours per week

Fee: $2,800

Outcome: Gain a long-term competitive advantage with sustainable investment strategies that meet investor expectations and drive financial performance.

Yale SOM developed this program to be administered by our program collaborator, GetSmarter. Please direct all program-related inquiries, including questions about fees and registration, to GetSmarter .

Through this program, I've learned about different sustainable investment strategies and the metrics to use when assessing an investment opportunity. I would recommend the program to anyone who needs to take into account sustainability factors in their investment decisions. Regina Zeng

About the Program

What to expect.

• Explore practical tools and models to make financial decisions that consider the environment, society, and institutions
• Gain a roadmap to navigate the ESG ecosystem, data, and metrics
• Understand how ESG factors can be used to derive investment strategies
• Learn how to integrate ESG factors into asset-pricing models and portfolio management, as well as fixed-income and non-public investment products
• Engage with empirical research, real-life data, and interactive experiential learning, as well as a global cohort of business professionals 

Who Should Attend

• Business leaders and executives from the financial sector who are aiming to make sustainable investment decisions
• Executives and senior management professionals who need to budget for sustainable investments and report on returns
• Consultants and risk management professionals who need a broad understanding of the ESG landscape
• Public policy and regulation makers 
• Orientation module
• Module 1: Sustainable investing strategies
• Module 2: Key organizations and tools in sustainable finance
• Module 3: ESG data, metrics, and analytics
• Module 4: Asset pricing and portfolio management
• Module 5: Impact metrics and investing
• Module 6: Diversity of ESG investment products

 I now feel I have a good understanding of the universe of this industry. I know where to go for additional knowledge pursuits, where I need additional training and coursework to be relevant in this field, and the directions I could pursue to align with my passions and past experience. Nicole Rudnick

Program Convener

Senior Lecturer in Sustainability

Todd is a Senior Lecturer in Sustainability at the Yale School of Management with a courtesy appointment at the Yale School of the Environment. He serves as Faculty Co-Director for the Yale Center for Business and the Environment (CBEY) and the Yale Initiative on Sustainable Finance (YISF) as well as Faculty Director of the Executive MBA Program in Sustainability. He serves on a variety of advisory boards including the JUST Capital Scientific Advisory Board, PRIME Coalition Academic Advisory Committee, and Merck Sustainability Advisory Committee. His research and teaching focus on ESG metrics and data and how that information is integrated into corporate and investment strategies.

Registration Information

Registration closes:  April 09, 2024 Program starts with orientation:  April 17, 2024

There are no prerequisites for this program. Register to get started. Our online program partner, GetSmarter, will welcome you and guide you through the steps to secure your place in the program.

Program Fee Assistance

A program fee reduction of 15% is available for those working in the nonprofit or government sectors; Yale University alumni; small groups of 3-6; and those who have previously participated in a Yale Executive Education program with Yale SOM, ExecOnline, or 2U/GetSmarter.*

*Discounts cannot be combined

This program does not qualify for veteran financial aid or veterans benefits at this time.

Program Collaborator

This program is presented entirely online in collaboration with leader in digital education,  GetSmarter , a 2U, Inc. brand. Technology meets academic rigor in GetSmarter’s people-mediated model, which enables lifelong learners across the globe to obtain industry-relevant skills that are certified by the world’s most reputable academic institutions. This interactive, supportive teaching model is designed for busy professionals and results in unprecedented certification rates for online programs.

View the  Sustainable Finance and Investment  online program on the GetSmarter website.

Modules are released on a weekly basis and can be completed in your own time and at your own pace.

UCL Institute for Sustainable Resources

Sustainable Finance

The sustainable finance work focuses upon the financing dimensions of low carbon investment and transition, and the architecture of the financial system to identify points of intervention that climate policy can leverage to spur green finance.

Exploring the dynamic interplay of the financial, technology and policy elements in the investment system is crucial to better inform policy design. These elements will likely influence key actors, leverage existing interconnections and deploy instruments of public finance and policy effectively to accelerate the deployment of low-carbon technologies. Current research on Sustainable Finance is supported by the LINKS project. This project will last for the next five years and will focus on the role of climate finance to meet the Paris climate goals (2019-2024). This research will promote essential guidance for a re-orientation of financial flows towards low-carbon and energy efficiency investments. Previous findings come from other two EU Horizon 2020 projects, namely GREEN-WIN and RIPPLES, both projects focus on the cross-cutting role of finance in overcoming barriers to climate action, with a particular emphasis on exploring avenues for integrating climate public policies with a mainstream finance framework and system. Below a short description of these projects and related websites.  

The LINKS project looks at aligning the broader financial system with low-carbon pathways of development is key to delivering the Paris Agreement. However, the financial system is increasingly built on the interdependencies and interconnections of investors that, at the aggregate level, are hard to predict and control. The 2008 financial crisis demonstrated how policy makers and financial regulators had great difficulty managing interconnected systems - due to inadequate visibility on the structure and monitoring of the systems.  When it comes to low-carbon assets, this interconnectedness between investors remains unexplored as climate policy analysis takes the existing structure of financial systems as given. Understanding the anatomy and the architecture of the financial system as well as its evolution, is crucial to identifying points of intervention that climate policy can leverage to spur green finance.  ‘Shifting the trillions’ to close the climate investment gap will require to exploit investors’ interactions and dynamics as their collective dynamics shape the actual flows in low-carbon technologies and drive the direction of technical change. The evolution of inter-connected structures will determine how the system could pool long-term financial assets to boost the low-carbon transition; how policy can seek to take advantages of non-linearity and tipping points in the system by influencing key actors and connections; and will determine the main winners and losers within the financial system itself.

The recently established LINKS programme, focuses on the role of the financial system in boosting the low-carbon transition and explores the market structures for low-carbon finance. It looks at the capital flows directed towards renewables and energy efficiency interventions using advanced computational techniques and extensive financial and investment data. The goal is to show how micro investors’ behaviour and interactions give rise to large scale investment trends.  Employing network analysis on long-term investment data will allows us to determine the structure and growth of the system based on the dynamism of its investors’ behaviour, their influence in the system and investment trends. Key features of this analysis are to determine:

• which network structures and investors lead to pathways of low-carbon deployment to reduce GHG emissions, 
• how they evolve and self-organise over time in response to stimulus from external environment, and 
• how their dynamics could boost more investment towards low-carbon projects, when supported by conducive policy.

GREEN-WIN focuses upon financing dimensions of low carbon investment and transition, and its interaction with technology and modelling. In particular, key analyses include: 

• Map out key actors and financial instruments for climate finance in G20 countries with a focus on the US, China and selected European countries, including Germany, UK and Italy. In particular, this analysis explored i) key actors and their interests in providing climate finance ii) governance arrangements and financial instruments that affect finance flows; iii) possible misalignments between investors’ expectations and financial instruments available. This task included also analyses on the consistency between climate finance and mainstream finance versus climate goals; 
• Analyse the reasons why institutional finance is not directing more substantial investment to low-carbon projects, and identify which policy packages can leverage more finance into low carbon assets. This analysis included interactions between government, private institutional finance and behavioural practices, and between pricing frameworks, market design and structural barriers;
• Explore several dimensions of economic analysis of transition to a low carbon economy, in particular concerning financial and technological considerations that need to be represented in the modelling work. This analysis focused on i) determinants and values of the weighted average cost of capital (WACC), and the micro-economic leverage effect of lower WACCs in lowering the cost of capital-intensive sources and thereby supporting investment; ii) technology spillover mechanisms used by the macroeconomic models; iii) multipliers in economic models and estimates of the associated macroeconomic leverage effects on employment intensities of investments in different technology/sector areas.

RIPPLES focuses on the financial implications of NDC and 2°C-1.5°C trajectories, in terms of investment required across all sectors, cross-border capital flows, public budgets, and the financial system more broadly.  The analysis focuses on the role of the financial sector in facilitating the transition towards the Paris Agreement goals. It undertakes both quantitative and qualitative approaches in order to provide key recommendations to stakeholders and policymakers related to climate finance. The modelling analysis soft-links three different model types (TIAM-UCL, MEWA and ENGAGE) to consider investment requirement pathways and how the levels of investment are achieved through different financial instruments.  The qualitative analysis explores how the financial sector must be transformed to meet the long-term public interest and common goods. Accordingly, it requires making finance sustainable as a whole rather than adding a layer of “sustainable finance”.  

Nadia Ameli Principle Research Fellow View Nadia's profile Send Nadia an email

Jamie Rickman Research Fellow View Jamie's profile Send Jamie an email

Sumit Kothari PhD student

Michael Grubb Professor of Energy and Climate Change View Michael's profile Send Michael an email

Photo by Gordon Williams on Unsplash  

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• PhD Programmes

Sustainable Finance

Sustainable Finance Summer School

At the end of this course, students should be able to:

• Identify value creation (and destruction) across financial, social and ecological capital
• Establish risk and return profiles for all types of capital
• Identify the methods for long-term investing
• Know how fundamental equity valuation brings a deeper understanding of companies
• Make capital structure calculations for all types of capital

Information

Achieving the Sustainable Development Goals is the grand challenge of our time. This course gives insight in ‘how finance can contribute to sustainable development’ and aims to inspire PhD researchers to do research in this field.

The finance transition is about transforming finance from operating on financial value only to working with the concept of integrated value, which combines financial, social and ecological value. The concept of integrated value is approached from an academic angle: how to incorporate social and ecological factors in the cost of capital, the valuation and capital structure of companies?

Students apply the integrated value concept in a group assignment or research proposal.

Assessment is on a Pass/Fail basis. To pass the course, participants must meet the following requirements:

• Attend all sessions
• Actively participate in all sessions
• Prepare essential readings
• Complete at least one group assignment or present an outline of a research proposal

The course builds on a new text book (corporate finance) and recent articles (investment):

Schoenmaker, D. and W. Schramade (2023), Corporate Finance for Long-Term Value , Springer, Berlin, forthcoming . (Chapters will be made available in early June)

Schoenmaker, D. and W. Schramade (2019), ‘Investing for Long-Term Value Creation’, Journal of Sustainable Finance & Investment , 9(4), 356-377.

Zerbib, O. (2022), ‘A Sustainable Capital Asset Pricing Model (S-CAPM): Evidence from Environmental Integration and Sin Stock Exclusion’, Review of Finance , 26(6): 1345-1388.

Additional info

• 1, 2 & 4 July: 09:00-11:45 and 13:00-15:45

For the timetable of this course, please click here . The timetable is in the local time of Rotterdam, which is CEST (UTC+02:00).

This course is held fully online.

Registration

ERIM PhD candidates (full-time and part-time): register directly via Osiris . Participation free of charge.

Non-ERIM PhD candidates: register via online form . The course fee 500 euro.

RSM/ESE faculty members with ERIM membership and PhD candidates at SIKS: register via  online form . Participation free of charge.

Please note that the number of places for this course is limited. In case the number of registrations exceeds the number of available seats, priority is given to ERIM PhD candidates.

Please contact us at [email protected] if you have questions.

• © 2024 Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam
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The Rise of Green Finance in Europe

Opportunities and Challenges for Issuers, Investors and Marketplaces

• © 2019
• Marco Migliorelli 0 ,
• Philippe Dessertine 1

IAE Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Sorbonne Business School), Paris, France European Commission, Brussels, Belgium

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IAE Université Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne (Sorbonne Business School), Paris, France

• Adds to the scarce scientific literature on green finance, in particular as it concerns Europe
• Fosters the debate on the future of green finance in Europe and worldwide
• Includes a discussion on unexplored items such as the potential role of digitalisation and blockchain in fostering green finance, on the need of enhancing green finance in agriculture and on the relationship between sustainable finance and other forms of alternative finance

Part of the book series: Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance (SIF)

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Table of contents (11 chapters)

Front matter, state of the art, an overview of green finance.

• Romain Berrou, Philippe Dessertine, Marco Migliorelli

Defining Green Finance: Existing Standards and Main Challenges

• Romain Berrou, Nicola Ciampoli, Vladimiro Marini

The Development of Green Finance by Sector

• Olaf Weber, Amr ElAlfy

Sustainable Finance Management

• Giovanni Ferri, Francesca Lipari

Financial Performances of Green Securities

• Dirk Schiereck, Gunnar Friede, Alexander Bassen

Institutional Initiatives to Foster Green Finance at EU Level

• Vladimiro Marini

The (Long) Way Forward and New Opportunities

From transaction-based to mainstream green finance.

Marco Migliorelli, Philippe Dessertine

The Development of Green Finance in EU Agriculture: Main Obstacles and Possible Ways Forward

Marco Migliorelli

Fintech, Digitalization and Blockchain: Possible Applications for Green Finance

• Gregor Dorfleitner, Diana Braun

Sustainable Finance: A Common Ground for the Future in Europe?

• Silvio Goglio, Ivana Catturani

Green Finance Today: Summary and Concluding Remarks

Back matter.

• Sustainable Development Goals
• Green securities
• Sustainable banking
• Financing green practices in agriculture
• Green finance and stock exchanges in Europe
• Green washing
• digitalisation
• alternative finance
• sustainable finance
• impact finance
• agriculture
• investments and securities
• development finance

About this book

This book offers a comprehensive discussion of how green finance has been growing thus far and explores the opportunities and key developments ahead, with particular emphasis on Europe. The main features of the market, the key products, the issue of correctly defining green finance, the main policy actions undertaken, the risk of green washing and the necessary steps to mainstream green finance are discussed in depth. In addition, the book analyses some highly relevant aspects of the market that so far have not been sufficiently explored in the policy, industry and academic debate. This includes the potential role of digitalisation and blockchain in fostering green finance, the crucial role of the effective financing of the agriculture to reach climate and environmental targets and the possible relationship between sustainable finance and other forms of "alternative" finance. This book will be of interest to academics, practitioners, financial institutions and policy makers involved in green finance and to the finance industry in general. 

Editors and Affiliations

European commission, brussels, belgium, about the editors.

Marco Migliorelli  is a researcher in finance at the University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France and an economist at the European Commission. He earned a PhD from the University of Rome Tor Vergata, Italy. His research interests include green finance, cooperative banking and financial instruments innovation. 

Philippe Dessertine is a full professor of finance at University Paris 1 Panthéon-Sorbonne, France, the director of  Institut de Haute Finance , Paris, France and a former member of the  Haut Conseil des finances publiques  in France. He is author of several publications on the role of finance in the modern society.

Bibliographic Information

Book Title : The Rise of Green Finance in Europe

Book Subtitle : Opportunities and Challenges for Issuers, Investors and Marketplaces

Editors : Marco Migliorelli, Philippe Dessertine

Series Title : Palgrave Studies in Impact Finance

DOI : https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-030-22510-0

Publisher : Palgrave Macmillan Cham

eBook Packages : Economics and Finance , Economics and Finance (R0)

Copyright Information : The Editor(s) (if applicable) and The Author(s), under exclusive license to Springer Nature Switzerland AG 2019

Hardcover ISBN : 978-3-030-22509-4 Published: 02 December 2019

Softcover ISBN : 978-3-030-22512-4 Published: 24 December 2020

eBook ISBN : 978-3-030-22510-0 Published: 20 November 2019

Series ISSN : 2662-5105

Series E-ISSN : 2662-5113

Edition Number : 1

Number of Pages : XX, 275

Number of Illustrations : 17 b/w illustrations

Topics : Investments and Securities , Development Finance , Sustainable Development , Innovation/Technology Management

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Postgraduate research opportunities Corporate Sustainability and Sustainable Finance

• Opens:  Wednesday 30 March 2022
• Deadline:  Tuesday 31 May 2022
• Number of places:  2
• Duration:  3 years
• Funding:  Home fee, Stipend

Eligibility

1st class honours/undergraduate degree and an excellent Masters-level qualification or equivalent (highly desirable), in a numerate subject such as finance, economics, operations research, mathematics, statistics and management science, from a recognised academic institution. If English is not your first language, you will also be required to provide evidence such as a recent UKVI recognised English language test (such as IELTS, minimum overall band score of 6.5 with no individual test score below 5.5) or a university degree completed in a recognized English speaking country.

Project Details

These two projects will focus on large international firms. The first project will develop and evaluate metrics to assess sustainability, reputation, and trust. The methodology will be case study and survey based. Measuring then linking corporate sustainability, sustainable finance, Government policy, and organizational trust provides a significant challenge to decision-makers. The second project will develop a cybernetic model capturing the systemic and circular causal relationships between corporate social media communications, shareholder opinion, market reaction, government, public opinion as well as private and public sector influences. As the research from the first project develops it is anticipated there will be synergies with the second in linking and identifying associated influences on key metrics of sustainability, reputation and trust. The second project will be primarily based on SDG (UN Sustainable Development Goals) related social media communications data, supplemented with interviews from relevant experts to structure the model.

Further information

These projects will form part of a collaboration between the School of Management at Politecnico di Milano and the School of Environment, Enterprise and Development at the University of Waterloo.

Strathclyde Business School is committed to supporting a diverse and inclusive postgraduate research population. We make decisions on entry by assessing the whole person and not relying solely on academic achievements. On that basis, please ensure that your application (via your CV and covering letter) can evidence your resourcefulness, commitment and resilience as demonstrated by broader professional and life experiences. This evidence should be centred on your ability to undertake and complete a PhD and contribute to a positive PhD community.

Funding details

Fully-funded scholarship for three years covers all university tuition fees (at UK level) and an annual tax-free stipend. International students are also eligible to apply, but they will need to find other funding sources to cover the difference between the home and international tuition fees. Exceptional international candidates may be provided funding for this difference.

Supervisors

Professor David Hillier

Associate Principal & Executive Dean Strathclyde Business School

Professor John Quigley

• Management Science

Dr Leilei Tang

Senior Lecturer Accounting and Finance

Number of places: 2

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Professor John Quigley [email protected] .

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Climate Change Finance and Investment MSc

Awards: MSc

Study modes: Full-time

Funding opportunities

Programme website: Climate Change Finance and Investment

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Programme description

Our MSc in Climate Change Finance and Investment is dedicated to developing professionals in the field of low carbon finance and investment. Designed around an interdisciplinary foundation of carbon accounting, climate policy and financial economics, the programme will develop your skills and knowledge to help drive the trillions of dollars of new investment needed to face the climate emergency.

The MSc has an international focus, looking at the opportunities and challenges across different sectors, financial markets, and levels of national economic development.

Programme structure

Learning will primarily be through:

• set reading
• class discussions
• group-work assignments
• problem-solving in tutorials
• case studies

Assessment methods include examinations, assignments, presentations or continuous assessment.

• MSc Climate Change Finance and Investment programme structure

Find out more about compulsory and optional courses

We link to the latest information available. Please note that this may be for a previous academic year and should be considered indicative.

Learning outcomes

The programme is dedicated to professionals in the field of low carbon finance and investment, focusing on the financial flows driven by society's response to climate change, and is fundamentally interdisciplinary in nature.

By the end of the programme, you will be able to:

• explain and evaluate the current state of climate change science and key climate change policy initiatives
• understand how to incorporate environmental and climate issues in project finance in the energy sector
• describe and critically evaluate the structure and dynamics of the major global, regional and national-level carbon markets
• explain and apply practices and procedures of carbon accounting
• critically evaluate how governments provide and catalyse national and international climate finance

understand and apply methods for assessing climate risk and alignment with climate goals

MSc Climate Change Finance and Investment learning outcomes

Career opportunities

Industry opportunities.

The MSc in Climate Change Finance and Investment programme has a number of exciting partnerships with industry, consultants, government agencies and NGOs. Our strong connection to industry is embedded in the programme through guest lectures and the opportunity to engage with business figures.

• MSc Climate Change Finance and Investment industry opportunities

Career development

The explosion of climate change finance and investment has created a range of new types of business, professional careers and opportunities. Our dedicated Student Development Team within the Business School will be an integral part of your student experience from day one. We are here to help you become equipped to maximise your potential in the global market.

• MSc Climate Change Finance and Investment career development

Career outcomes

Graduates from the MSc in Climate Change Finance and Investment will typically pursue a career in climate change investment, carbon markets, consulting or carbon accounting.

Job titles of our recent graduates include:

• audit associate
• consultant analyst
• ESG research and models analyst
• head of green funding office
• international climate investment consultant
• private sector development manager
• research fellow
• responsible investment and engagement associate
• sustainability analyst

technical advisor (renewable energy)

MSc Climate Change Finance and Investment career outcomes

Choosing the Climate Change Finance and Investment Masters at the University of Edinburgh

Find out from Maurice, who studied Carbon Finance in 2018 (the precursor to CCFI), what it is like to live and study in Edinburgh.

Entry requirements

These entry requirements are for the 2024/25 academic year and requirements for future academic years may differ. Entry requirements for the 2025/26 academic year will be published on 11 July 2024.

Entrance to our MSc programmes is strongly competitive. You can increase your chances of a successful application by exceeding the minimum programme requirements.

• Important points to note when applying for this programme

Academic requirements

You will need a UK first-class or 2:1 honours degree in one of the subjects below, or its international equivalent.

• An undergraduate degree in business, economics, engineering or a social or physical science is normally required.
• Candidates with a very good Honours degree in other areas of study or relevant work experience will be considered on an individual basis

Supporting your application

• Relevant work experience is not required but may increase your chances of acceptance.
• Preference will be given to those with grades above the minimum requirements and/or relevant work experience due to strong competition for places on this programme.

If you do not meet the minimum academic requirement, you may still be considered if you have 2 or more years of relevant work experience. We may require you to complete the Graduate Management Admissions Test (GMAT) or Graduate Records Examination (GRE) which are internationally-recognised assessments of analytical, numerical and verbal reasoning.

If we require you to take GMAT, we would require a score of 600 as a minimum or 555 under the Focus edition. This equates to a performance in the 51st percentile under each format. For GRE we would require a score of 315 as a minimum to qualify for our Climate Change Finance and Investment MSc. The GMAT and GRE are not a compulsory part of the application process, but if you have a score that you wish to report to us then this would be welcomed.*

We will accept results from the GMAT Online exam.

• Official GMAT Exam website

*(Revised 24 October 2023 to provide equivalencies for the GMAT Focus edition.)

Students from China

This degree is Band A.

• Postgraduate entry requirements for students from China

International qualifications

Check whether your international qualifications meet our general entry requirements:

• Entry requirements by country
• English language requirements

Regardless of your nationality or country of residence, you must demonstrate a level of English language competency at a level that will enable you to succeed in your studies.

English language tests

We accept the following English language qualifications at the grades specified:

• IELTS Academic: total 7.0 with at least 6.0 in each component. We do not accept IELTS One Skill Retake to meet our English language requirements.
• TOEFL-iBT (including Home Edition): total 100 with at least 20 in each component. We do not accept TOEFL MyBest Score to meet our English language requirements.
• C1 Advanced ( CAE ) / C2 Proficiency ( CPE ): total 185 with at least 169 in each component.
• Trinity ISE : ISE III with passes in all four components.
• PTE Academic: total 70 with at least 59 in each component.

Your English language qualification must be no more than three and a half years old from the start date of the programme you are applying to study, unless you are using IELTS , TOEFL, Trinity ISE or PTE , in which case it must be no more than two years old.

Degrees taught and assessed in English

We also accept an undergraduate or postgraduate degree that has been taught and assessed in English in a majority English speaking country, as defined by UK Visas and Immigration:

• UKVI list of majority English speaking countries

We also accept a degree that has been taught and assessed in English from a university on our list of approved universities in non-majority English speaking countries (non-MESC).

• Approved universities in non-MESC

If you are not a national of a majority English speaking country, then your degree must be no more than five years old* at the beginning of your programme of study. (*Revised 05 March 2024 to extend degree validity to five years.)

Find out more about our language requirements:

Fees and costs

Application fee.

This programme requires a non-refundable application fee.

You will need to pay this deposit within 28 days of receiving your offer of admission (either unconditional or conditional).

• £1,500 (this contributes towards your tuition fees)

Additional programme costs

See the programme website for more information on additional costs, as well as application fees and deposit payment.

• MSc Climate Change Finance and Investment - fees and living expenses

Living costs

You will be responsible for covering living costs for the duration of your studies. Below you can find a breakdown of the cost of living in Edinburgh and other studying costs to help you calculate your finances.

• Other studying and living costs

Tuition fees

Scholarships and funding, featured funding.

Business School scholarships

External Scholarships

UK government postgraduate loans

If you live in the UK, you may be able to apply for a postgraduate loan from one of the UK’s governments.

The type and amount of financial support you are eligible for will depend on:

• your programme
• the duration of your studies
• your tuition fee status

Programmes studied on a part-time intermittent basis are not eligible.

• UK government and other external funding

Other funding opportunities

Search for scholarships and funding opportunities:

• Search for funding

Further information

• Enquiry Management Team
• Phone: +44 (0)131 650 9663
• Contact: [email protected]
• Programme Director, Ian Cochran
• Phone: +44 (0)131 651 5547
• Contact: [email protected]
• University of Edinburgh Business School
• 29 Buccleuch Place
• Central Campus
• Programme: Climate Change Finance and Investment
• School: Business School
• College: Arts, Humanities & Social Sciences

Select your programme and preferred start date to begin your application.

MSc Climate Change Finance & Investment - 1 Year (Full-time)

Application deadlines.

Due to high demand, the School operates a number of selection deadlines. We will make a small number of offers to the most outstanding candidates on an ongoing basis, but hold the majority of applications until the next published selection deadline when we will offer a proportion of the places available to applicants selected through the competitive process described on the School website.

Full details on the admissions process and the selection deadlines are available on the Business School website:

• Admissions Strategy

Deadlines for applicants applying to study in 2024/25:

• How to apply

You must submit one reference with your application.

Find out more about the general application process for postgraduate programmes:

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If you are planning to do a PhD at the Chair of Sustainable Banking and Finance, as the next academic step, you will find all the important information about the process and further procedure here.

General conditions

In principle, the Chair offers interested and qualified university graduates the opportunity to do a PhD in economics. On the one hand, there is the classic "internal" PhD programme , in which you work on your doctoral studies and at the same time participate in the Chair in a scientific manner. On the other hand, there is also the possibility of an external doctorate at the Chair , where you do your doctorate while working. In both cases, the aim is to create the right conditions for you to successfully complete your doctoral project within two to three years.

For both internal and external promotions, you create s everal individual publications on a specific topic ( cumulative procedure ). The common goal is that the papers you write have a realistic chance of being published in a renowned, peer-reviewed journal. As a rule, the papers will have a quantitative or empirical character and relate to the research areas of the Chair (exceptions confirm the rule!). Throughout the entire doctoral project, you will have the opportunity to discuss your ideas (and problems) at the professorship at any time.

Requirements

Admission to the doctoral procedure is subject to the Promotionsordnung of the Faculty of Economic Sciences. All formal requirements for admission are regulated there. In addition, they should ideally

• have an outstandingly business-oriented degree (Master's/ diploma/ state examination in the subjects of business studies/ economics, business mathematics, business informatics, business education, industrial engineering, mathematics or statistics)
• in addition, a very good knowledge of English is indispensable, as the dissertation will be written in English.

If you are interested in a PhD at the Chair, please send an E-Mail for further arrangements. In addition, you will find below cross-links to further information that may help with formal questions.

Complete PhD procedures

• Dr. Marcus Scheffer (2011-2016, internal, current employer: ERGO Group AG)
• Dr. Christopher Bierth (2013-2016, internal, current employer: B&W Deloitte GmbH)
• Dr. Felix Irresberger (2013-2015, internal, current employer: Leeds University Business School)
• Dr. Hendrik Supper (2012-2014, internal, current employerr: d-fine GmbH)
• Dr. Tobias Berens (2011-2014, external, current employer: Deutsche Apotheker- und Ärztebank eG)

This might also be of interest to you...

Phd at leipzig university, phd at the faculty, research academy leipzig.

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Climate Change | Green Finance

Green Finance

The financial sector has an important role to play in the fight against climate change by supporting reductions in climate change risk and mitigating the impact of adverse climate events.

Long term institutional investors can help with rebalancing and redistributing of climate related risks and maintaining financial stability. Hedging instruments (e.g., catastrophe bonds, indexed insurance) help insure against increasing natural disaster risk, and other financial instruments (e.g., green stock indices, green bonds, voluntary de-carbonization initiatives) can help re-allocate investment to “green” sectors.

From the oversight perspective, central banks and other regulators are adapting frameworks and practices to address the multifaceted risks posed by climate change. This includes ways to improve climate risk disclosure and classification standards, which will help financial institutions and investors better assess their climate-related exposures—and help regulators better gauge system-wide risks.

The IMF is offering support by working with the Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System and other standard-setting bodies to promote green finance more broadly and developing climate-related stress tests.

Publications

Imf working paper, june 05 2020, this changes everything: climate shocks and sovereign bonds.

Download the publication

Global Financial Stability Report, April 2020

Markets in the time of covid-19 | chapter 5: climate change: physical risk and equity prices.

Global Financial Stability Report, October 2019

Lower for longer | chapter 6 sustainable finance.

FINANCE & DEVELOPMENT, DECEMBER 2019, VOL. 56, NO. 4  PDF VERSION

A greener future for finance.

Green bonds offer lessons for sustainable finance

Fifty Shades of Green

The world needs a new, sustainable financial system to stop runaway climate change.

Read more 

Climate Change and Financial Risk

Central banks and financial regulators are starting to factor in climate change.

Back to Top

Equity Investors Must Pay More Attention to Climate Change Physical Risk

MAY 29, 2020

The damage from the 2011 floods in Thailand amounted to around 10 percent of Thailand’s GDP, not even considering all the indirect costs through a loss in economic activity in the country and abroad. By some estimates, the total costs of the 2018 wildfires in California were up to $350 billion, or 1.7 percent of U.S. GDP.  Every year, climatic disasters cause human suffering as well as large economic and ecological damage. Over the past decade, direct damages of such disasters are estimated to add up to around US$ 1.3 trillion (or around 0.2% of world GDP on average, per year).

Connecting the Dots Between Sustainable Finance and Financial Stability

OCTOBER 10, 2019

Unsafe working conditions. Use of child or forced labor. Environmental impact on protected areas. More and more investors are looking at issues and factors beyond traditional financial analysis when directing their money. Sustainable finance aims to help society better meet today’s needs and ensure that future generations will be able to meet theirs too.

ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Will green finance contribute to a green recovery evidence from green financial pilot zone in china.

• 1 School of Management, Hainan University, Haikou, China
• 2 Institute of Finance & Banking, Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
• 3 The Graduate School of College of Arts and Sciences, Georgetown University, Washington, DC, United States
• 4 School of Literature, University of Chinese Academy of Social Sciences, Beijing, China
• 5 School of Finance, Central University of Finance and Economics, Beijing, China

In the post-epidemic era, green finance plays a more significant role in supporting the “green recovery” of the economy, so it is necessary to evaluate the implementation effect of previous green financial policies. In 2017, the green finance reform and innovation pilot zone set up in five provinces and autonomous regions made an exploration in the development of green finance. From the perspective of micro-enterprises, can this policy play a beneficial policy effect in the long run? Based on the quasi-natural experiment of green finance pilot, using the data of A-share listed companies, this paper empirically tests the impact of pilot policies on the long-term value of green enterprises in pilot areas. It is found that, compared with non-pilot zones, the green finance pilot enables a significant increase in the Tobin Q-measured value of green enterprises in the pilot zones. Heterogeneity analysis shows that green finance pilot has a more significant impact on non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises in traditional industries, large enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region of China. Green finance pilot zone can achieve better policy effects in areas with stronger environmental impact regulation and higher financial development levels. The mechanism test shows that the green finance pilot affects the long-term value of green enterprises through the capital market effect improving the stock trading activity of enterprises and through the real effect improving the operational efficiency and profitability of enterprises. From the perspective of micro-enterprises, this paper enriches the research on the development effect of green finance and provides theoretical support for the effect evaluation of green finance pilot policies.

Introduction

The COVID-19 epidemic outbreak in early 2020 has made people more aware that the development of human society is always constrained by the natural environment, that economic development and growth should be well-coordinated with the protection of the natural ecological environment, and that any attempt to make the two in opposition shall be boomeranged. To prevent similar tragedies from happening again, we must promote the green and low-carbon transformation of the economy and society and enhance the sustainability of economic growth. After suffering from the impact of the COVID-19 epidemic, we must support and promote the “green recovery” of the economy, that is, in the post-epidemic era, the production and consumption return to the pre-epidemic level in terms of quantity and quality and achieve further growth while increasing the proportion of green consumption and green production, and thereby ultimately transforming the economic structure toward a green and sustainable direction.

From the perspective of economic theory, the economic recovery period after the COVID-19 epidemic impact is an excellent opportunity to promote structural transformation and “green recovery” of the economy: on the one hand, the COVID-19 epidemic impact leads to a cliff-like decline in pollution emissions in production, and a large number of backward production capacity has been naturally eliminated; on the other hand, government departments can use less green product subsidies to stimulate more green R&D investment in the context of declining production yield, thus creating more green production capacity at a lower policy cost.

As the blood of the entity economy, finance is the core of the modern economy. Therefore, finance should play an irreplaceable role in the process of economic “green recovery” in the post-epidemic era. Green finance bears the mission of providing investment and financing, project operation, risk management, and other services for economic activities supporting environmental improvement, coping with climate change, and resource conservation and efficient utilization. Because there is a limited amount of financial funds and the need for complex relief should be given priority during the epidemic crisis, green finance can help fill the financing gap faced by green investment in the process of “green recovery” in the post-epidemic era.

To give superior support to “green recovery,” green finance needs the sustenance of micro-enterprises. Only when the value of enterprises, especially those engaged in green and low-carbon related industries, improves the practice of green finance can micro-enterprises actively participate in green investment and transformation, and relevant practices can thereby be implemented stably and achieve the far-reaching effect. China's green finance started earlier. In 1995, the former State Environmental Protection Administration of China (SEPA) and the People's Bank of China respectively, issued the Notice on Using Green Credit to Promote Environmental Protection and the Notice on Implementing Credit Policy and Environmental Protection . In 2012, the former China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC) issued the Guidelines for Green Credit and gradually improved it into a statistical system for green credit. In 2015, the Integrated Reform Plan for Promoting Ecological Progress promulgated by the State Council proposed to build a green financial system. In August 2016, the People's Bank of China, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission (NDRC), the former Ministry of Environmental Protection, the former China Banking Regulatory Commission (CBRC), the China Securities Regulatory Commission (CSRC) and the former China Insurance Regulatory Commission (CIRC) jointly issued the Guidelines for Establishing the Green Financial System, which constructed the top-level design of green financial development. The report of the 19th National Congress of the Communist Party of China put forward the requirement of vigorously developing green finance. Under the guidance of this spirit, the 5th Plenary Session of the 19th National Congress deliberated and adopted the Proposal of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of China on Formulating the 14th Five-Year Plan for National Economic and Social Development and the Long-term Goals for 2035 , which made further arrangements for ecological civilization construction and green development and further emphasized the critical role of green finance in promoting the green transformation and development of economy and society. Under such a top-level design, the pilot practice at the grassroots level also serves as a magic weapon for successful reform. On June 14, 2017, the State Council executive meeting decided to build green financial reform and innovation pilot zones with different emphasis and characteristics in provinces and autonomous regions, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Xinjiang, and put forward five major reform pilot tasks. At the practical level, China has carried out the construction of the green financial innovation pilot zone and continuously expanded the scope of the pilot and made a series of beneficial explorations in green financial policy and tool innovation, which laid a solid pilot foundation for promoting the further development of green finance.

With the promotion of policies and practices, green finance has gradually become a hot topic for scholars to study. Existing academic studies have achieved many research results in terms of the definition of green finance ( 1 – 5 ), impact effect ( 6 ), and relevant policy tools to support the development of green finance ( 7 – 11 ). However, the existing research focuses on the macro-impact of green finance on economic and social development and the meso-impact on industries, while there is relatively little research on the impact on micro-enterprises, which needs further exploration.

On June 14th, 2017, the State Council executive meeting decided to build green financial reform and innovation pilot zones with different emphasis and characteristics in provinces and autonomous regions, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Xinjiang. Meanwhile, five major reform pilot tasks were proposed, including supporting financial institutions to set up green financial departments or green sub-branches, encouraging the development of green credit, exploring the establishment of environmental rights and interests trading markets, opening government service channels with priority for green projects and establishing green financial risk prevention mechanisms. As for the concrete situation of pilot zones, five provinces and autonomous regions actively introduced policies and measures, designed incentive mechanisms according to local conditions to promote green finance development, and achieved remarkable development efficacy. For example, Guizhou Province explores green finance supporting green agriculture and ecological environment governance; Huzhou City, Zhejiang Province, vigorously develops green credit, which accounts for 22% of the total credit balance, and improves the statistical system of green finance and starts the service of “Lvdaitong.” Jiangxi Ganjiang New District innovates various financial products and services such as credit, securities, and insurance to provide relevant financial services for investment and financing of green ecological industries. Regional Green Finance Development Index and Evaluation Report compiled by the International Institute of Green Finance, CUFE (Central University of Finance and Economics), shows that with the policy pilot promotion, the scores of the five pilot zones in green finance development and policy promotion measures are in the first echelon in China, and the relevant pilot zones have laid a solid pilot foundation for the further development of green finance.

However, what impact does this pilot policy have on micro-green enterprises? Does it bring about a long-term value promotion to green enterprises? In order to answer this question, this paper resorts to the quasi-natural experimental scenario of green finance pilot in China and the data of green enterprises in listed companies to test the impact of green finance pilot on the value of green enterprises from long-term perspectives. Firstly, this paper uses the Differences-in-Differences (DID) method to test the impact of green finance pilots on the long-term value of green enterprises measured by Tobin Q. The results of benchmark regression and a series of robustness tests show that the pilot policy of green finance has significantly improved the long-term value of green enterprises in the pilot zones. At the same time, if a region has a more vigorous intensity of environmental regulation and a higher level of financial development, green finance pilots in the region will achieve a more obvious promotion effect for the value of local green enterprises. The above results show that China's green finance pilot policy has promoted the value of green enterprises in the pilot zones in the long run, and the pilot policy has achieved specific expected outcomes. Then, this paper tests the mechanism of green finance pilot enhancing the long-term value of green enterprises. It is found that the green finance pilot not only increases the enterprise value by improving the capital market effect of stock return and trading activity of green enterprises but also improves the value of green enterprises by relieving financing constraints, increasing the technological innovation level and improving profitability. Finally, heterogeneity analysis shows that for non-state-owned enterprises, enterprises in traditional industries, large-scale enterprises, and enterprises in the eastern region, the pilot policy of green finance has a more pronounced effect on the long-term value of green enterprises.

Such a particular institutional arrangement of green finance pilot zones in some areas in China provides a rare opportunity for quasi-natural experiments to test the microeconomic consequences of the development of green finance. Meanwhile, empirical evidence from China's pilot areas will further enrich the relevant literature on the impact effect of green finance. Compared with the available literature, this paper may have the possible marginal contributions as follows: first, from the perspective of micro-enterprises, it tests the impact of green finance development on the long-term value of green enterprises, and more comprehensively describes the micro effect of green finance development. Second, a quantitative evaluation is made for the effect of green finance regional pilot policies in China. The results of this study show that China's green finance pilot improves the value of green enterprises in the pilot areas in the long term, which manifests that from the perspective of micro-enterprises, China's green finance pilot has achieved sound policy effects. Thirdly, this paper analyzes the influence mechanism of green finance development on the value of green enterprises and finds that green finance adds value to green enterprises through capital market effect and real effect.

Literature Review and Theoretical Analysis

China's experience in the reform lies in the successful use of experimental (pilot) methods, which is also reflected in the development of green finance. On June 14th, 2017, the executive meeting of the State Council decided to build green financial reform and innovation pilot zones with different emphasis and characteristics in five provinces and autonomous regions, including Zhejiang, Jiangxi, Guangdong, Guizhou, and Xinjiang, and put forward five major reform pilot tasks, aiming at exploring replicable and scalable experiences and enriching green financial tools and policies through the green financial pilot zones. Whether the green finance development and policy promotion measures in the five pilot zones have facilitated the development of green enterprises and industries in the current period? How to objectively and comprehensively evaluate the pilot zones' experimental effect to develop green finance better is in urgent need of in-depth academic research.

In terms of the definition of green finance, there are many related concepts. However, most of them emphasize that green finance is based on innovative financial products, markets, policies, and institutions to support energy-saving and environmental protection industries and the economy ( 1 – 5 ). More related studies are commenced with the real effect of green finance and the supportive policies promoting the development of green finance: Alexander ( 7 ), Campiglio ( 8 ), Thoma and Hilke ( 9 ), Monnin ( 10 ), and Campigli et al. ( 11 ) discuss the supportive policies from the aspects of fiscal and taxation policies, macro-prudential supervision and bank capital supervision, and more. Through theoretical and empirical tests, Fan et al. ( 6 ) found that enterprises with higher pollution levels could obtain fewer credit resources, and their output would also decrease with the introduction of green credit policies. Some other studies have proposed to incorporate green finance factors into traditional macro models ( 12 – 14 ) and thereby develop dynamic stochastic general equilibrium models ( 15 – 17 ) and integrated assessment models ( 18 ) used for interdisciplinary studies of economy, finance, and environment.

Finance has a significant impact on the structure and development of the entity economy, and this issue has been sufficiently discussed in the classical view of financial functions ( 19 , 20 ). The above studies on green finance undoubtedly further deepen and expand this subject. Currently available studies have carried out extensive discussion on the concept, development effect, and supporting policies of green finance from qualitative and quantitative perspectives. However, these studies emphasize the macro impact of green finance on economic and social development and its mesoscopic impact on the industry sector. At the same time, there are relatively few studies on the micro impact on enterprises, lacking the discussion on enterprise value. At the same time, the existing literature on the policy effect of green finance pilots is relatively insufficient, resulting in that the green finance pilot lacks rigorous academic evaluation of policy effectiveness. Based on the quasi-natural experimental scene of green finance reform and innovation pilot zone, this paper explores the impact of green finance pilots on micro-green enterprises.

From a long-term perspective, finance is the core and blood of the modern economy. For micro-enterprises, the development of finance enhances enterprises' value and development degree mainly by relieving financing constraints and improving investment efficiency, thereby improving the operational efficiency of the micro-enterprise economy. For enterprises engaged in green eco-industry and environmental protection, due to great environmental externalities in their own business and significant uncertainties in market demand, R&D of green environmental protection technology, the traditional financial business often lacks incentives and motives to support the development of the green ecological industry. Aimed at solving the “market failure” of the financial market, with the nature of public welfare finance, the concept and practice of green finance are positioned to serve the investment and financing needs of green industries and projects, support ecological environment protection, and respond to climate change risks. Therefore, green finance can support the operation of green enterprises in alleviating financing constraints, reducing transaction friction, and reducing risks, thus improving the value of green enterprises.

Specifically, green enterprises building a green production system must take green technology innovation and progress as the basic premise and need a large amount of capital investment to support it. However, the R &D and innovation of green technology are exposed to enormous uncertainties and risks, including positive environmental externalities, resulting in that the traditional financing system has an insufficient supply of financial resources for green technology innovation. Green finance opens a new path outside the traditional financial system, which increases the financing channels for green enterprises. Various types of green financial instruments and guarantee support policies also reduce the risks for enterprises in carrying out green technology innovation. With the support of green financial resources, green enterprises can enjoy tremendous success in technological innovation, thereby realizing more output of green patents and higher value of enterprises. Second, the financial system has the function of transmitting information and reducing transaction costs. For example, under the background of financial disintermediation, commercial banks hold a more critical position in the financial system because they hold a large amount of financial transaction data, which helps alleviate information asymmetry and other problems.

Similarly, the green financial system can effectively collect and process the relevant information related to green development in the market, and the financial system has a scale economy effect in the process of collecting information so that it can accurately identify potential green projects and enterprises, and provide financial resources support for the orientation of relevant targets, thus reducing the cost of green enterprises participating in financial transactions and helping to enhance enterprise value. Third, market-oriented financial transactions help to achieve effective matching of risks and benefits. For green enterprises, a significant obstacle to their financing for green technology innovation lies in more significant uncertainty and risks. In contrast, the green financial system can provide diversified financing for green enterprises, disperse related R&D risks, and provide investors with diversified investment and risk management tools, thus expanding the scale of investment in green enterprises and ultimately enhancing their value. In addition, the development of green finance may also expand the product market of green enterprises by supporting green consumption, thus enhancing the value of green enterprises.

To sum up, with the continuous promotion of green finance pilot policy, pilot zones usher in the continuous development of green finance and provide long-term financial support for green enterprises. Therefore, the impact of the green finance pilot produces long-term, lasting effects. Based on the above analysis, this paper puts forward the hypothesis H 1 :

H 1 : The pilot policy of green finance is conducive to enhancing the long-term value of green enterprises in the pilot zones.

According to the above analysis, green finance considers both “environment” and “finance.” Therefore, the smooth development of green finance needs the support of sound financial infrastructure and the coordination of relevant environmental policies. Suppose a region adopts relatively strict environmental regulation policies. In that case, it will help to restrain the development of enterprises in polluting industries and guide resources to flow to enterprises in green and low-carbon industries to play a synergistic effect with the pilot policies of green finance and jointly promote the development of green enterprises. At the same time, the relatively developed financial development level can also provide excellent financial infrastructure and data support for the development of green finance, thus giving full play to the pilot role of green finance. Based on this, this paper puts forward hypothesis H 2 :

H 2 : If a pilot zone implements more vigorous environmental regulation intensity and has a higher level of financial development, the green financial pilot will achieve a more significant policy effect.

Studies on the channels and mechanisms that affect enterprise value primarily focus on the capital market and entities. For example, in terms of the studies on the influence of patents on the enterprise value, Long ( 21 ), Levitas and Mcfadyen ( 22 ) all maintain that patents can improve enterprise value not only by enhancing enterprise profitability but also by the channel of transmitting signals to the capital market and rising stock prices. Kruger ( 23 ), when studying the influence mechanism of carbon emission information disclosure on enterprise value, also thinks that there are capital market effects (CME) that affect the long-term trading activity of enterprise capital market and real effects (RE) that affect the operation of enterprise entities. With regards to the green finance pilot policy studied in this paper, on the one hand, the green finance pilot can convey signals of supporting the long-term development of green enterprises in the pilot zone to the capital market to reduce information friction and affect the capital market's judgment on the future business operating environment and performance of green enterprises. Thereby, green enterprises can obtain a higher market attention index (MAI) and greater market liquidity in the capital market, thus affecting enterprise value, which is the CME capital market effects channel of green finance pilot affecting the value of green enterprises. On the other hand, it is the channel of real effects (RE), that is, green finance pilot can alleviate the financing constraints faced by green enterprises to improve the investment scale and innovation R&D input and output level of green enterprises, improve the investment efficiency, reduce the agency cost, to enhance the profitability of enterprises and ultimately elevate the value of enterprises. Based on the above analysis, this paper proposes hypothesis H 3 :

H 3 : The pilot policy of green finance affects the long-term value of enterprises through two mechanisms: capital market effects and real effects.

Sample Selection and Empirical Model

Sample selection.

This paper mainly aims to test the impact of the green financial reform and innovation pilot area established in 2017 on the value of green enterprises in the pilot zones. Based on the consideration of data availability, this paper takes the green enterprises in A-share listed companies from 2014 to 2019 as the research object. In this paper, “green enterprise” is defined in benchmark regression by manually matching the main business disclosed in the enterprise's annual report with the green industries listed in the Green Industry Guidance Catalog (2019 Edition) issued by the National Development and Reform Commission. If the enterprise's primary business is included in the Green Industry Guidance Catalog, it will be regarded as a “green enterprise.” Green Industry Guidance Catalog classifies green industries into energy-saving, environmental protection industries, clean production industry, clean energy industry, eco-environmental industry, green upgrading of infrastructure, and green services, with each industry contains specific industries sub-items. In the part of robustness test, this paper further takes the pollution intensity of the industry in which the enterprise is located and the social responsibility score of the enterprise as the standard to classify “green enterprises.” For the measurement of enterprise value, this paper uses Tobin Q to measure the long-term value of the enterprise ( 23 ). There are several reasons why Tobin Q is used to measure the value of an enterprise: First, from the definition of Tobin Q , the concept of Tobin Q covers two aspects of capital market valuation and physical investment. It can realize the organic combination of capital market and real industry. The impact of the green finance pilot zone covers the above two aspects. Therefore, using Tobin's Q to measure corporate value can better reflect the policy effects of the green finance pilot, and it is consistent with the mechanism analysis of this paper. Second, with the increase in Tobin's Q value, the company's capital market valuation is gradually higher than the company's replacement cost, which will encourage companies to increase investment expenditures. The research theme of this paper is how green finance can promote green recovery. From a micro level, the green recovery of the economy after the epidemic will inevitably require green companies to expand their production and investment scale. Therefore, using Tobin's Q to measure corporate value can reflect the incentive effect of green finance pilots on green corporate investment, and thus better fit the research theme of this paper. The relevant data are from different sources. The relevant data are sourced from the WIND database and RESSET database, respectively. The control variables selected in this paper include enterprise development ability, enterprise price-earnings ratio, cash flow, asset size, book-to-market ratio, ROA, leverage ratio, and sales revenue growth rate, etc. The relevant data comes from the iFind database of Hithink RoyalFlush Information Network Co., Ltd.

Model Setting and Descriptive Statistics

In this paper, a DID model is established as shown in the formula (1):

In which: q it stands for Tobin Q of the enterprise, and the dummy variable Treat i has a value of 1 for the processing group and 0 for the control group; In this paper, 2014–2019 is selected as the sample interval, and 2017 is taken as the base year. The dummy variable Time t takes the value of 1 after introducing the pilot policy (2017–2019); otherwise, it is 0. The main observation variable is coefficient β 1 of interactive item Treat i × Time t , which reflects the impact of green finance pilot policy on enterprise value. ∑ Control i is a group of control variables, including P/E ratio ( PE ), relative Cash flow ( Cash ), return on assets ( ROA ), leverage ratio ( lev ), sales revenue growth rate ( sales < uscore > growth ), ownership concentration ( con ), assets scale ( lnassets ), enterprise development ability ( DA expressed as the growth rate of business revenue) and enterprise's book-to-market( BM ). μ i represents the fixed effect of individual enterprises, Year t represents the fixed effect of years and ϵ it is the stochastic error term. The definition and descriptive statistics of long-term value research-related variables are shown in Table 1 .

Table 1 . Descriptive statistics.

Empirical Results and Analysis

Benchmark regression results.

For the long-term effect of the green finance pilot, the results of benchmark regression are shown in Table 2 . Among them, Column (1) is the regression result without added control variables, Column (2) is added with enterprise-level financial data as control variables, Column (3) is only added with enterprise capital market and governance data as control variables, Column (4) is added with various control variables, and the benchmark regression is clustered to the individual level of enterprises. From the regression results in Table 2 , it can be seen that the coefficients of the core explanatory variables of benchmark regression are all significantly positive, indicating that the green finance pilot policy has a significant role in promoting and enhancing the long-term value of green enterprises measured by Tobin Q. It is proved that for green enterprises, the pilot policy of green finance enhances the long-term value of enterprises. Thus, it belongs to a “lining project” with a practical development effect.

Table 2 . Results of benchmark regression.

Dynamic Effect Analysis

The difference-in-differences model aims to evaluate the policy effect through the quasi-natural experiment of public policy, so it must satisfy the parallel trend hypothesis, i.e., without policy intervention (before the pilot policy), the development trend of the explained variables in the treatment group and the control group is consistent. Concerning relevant literature, this paper constructs the following model (2) to test the dynamic effect of green finance pilot policy:

In which, year _ t = Treat × year is the product of the dummy variable of the pilot area and the dummy variable of time, and year is the dummy variable of time. Figure 1 shows the results of the parallel trend test, in which the year before the introduction of the pilot policy is taken as the base period. Before the pilot policy and when the policy is implemented, the coefficient of the time dynamic cross-product term is not significant, which indicates that there is no significant difference between the treatment group and the control group before the pilot policy. Hence, the parallel trend hypothesis is satisfied. In the 2 years (2018 and 2019) after the implementation of the policy, the corresponding coefficient is significantly positive, so it meets the relevant requirements of the parallel trend test.

Figure 1 . Parallel Trend.

Robustness Test

To ensure the robustness of the regression results of the above-mentioned long-term value benchmarks of green enterprises, this paper has carried out robustness tests in the following aspects:

(1) Replace the definition criteria of “green enterprise.” Benchmark regression in this paper manually matches the main business of an enterprise with the green industries listed in the Green Industry Guidance Catalog (2019 Edition) issued by the National Development and Reform Commission [F.G.H.Zi (2019) No.293]. Suppose the main business is included in the Green Industry Guidance Catalog. In that case, it will be regarded as a “green enterprise.” Furthermore, this paper replaces the definition of “green enterprise.” It uses industrial pollution intensity and corporate social responsibility score respectively as the criteria to delimit “green enterprise.”

As for the industrial pollution intensity, this paper selects six industrial pollution discharges, including sulfur dioxide, smoke dust, nitrogen oxide, chemical oxygen demand (wastewater), ammonia nitrogen, and solid waste. Firstly, calculate the discharge of pollutants per unit output value of the industry, i.e., UE ij = E ij / O i , in which, E ij is the emission of major pollutant j in the industry, and O i is the total output value of the industry i . Then, standardize each industrial sector's maximum and minimum pollutant emissions per unit output value: U E i j s = [ U E i j − min ( U E j ) ] / [ max ( U E j ) − min ( U E j ) ] . Finally, the emissions per unit output value of various pollutants are summed up, and the obtained industrial pollution emission intensity is γ i = ∑ j =   1 n U E i j s .

After calculating the industrial pollution emission intensity, the industrial departments are classified according to the median. If the pollution intensity is lower than the median, the enterprises in the industry are regarded as “green enterprises.” Otherwise, they are regarded as “non-green enterprises.” The data of pollution emission and the output value of industrial sectors in this paper come from China Industry Statistical Yearbook.

For the corporate social responsibility score, this paper uses the social responsibility index of listed companies compiled by hexun.com to calculate its average score over the years in the sample period and classifies enterprises according to its median. If the average score of corporate social responsibility is higher than the median, it shows that it performs well in environmental protection and pollution reduction, so it is defined as a “green enterprise”; otherwise, it is regarded as a “non-green enterprise.”

The regression results after replacing the definition standard of “green enterprise” are shown in column (1) and column (2) of Table 3 . The regression results of “green enterprises” defined by industry pollution emission intensity are reported in column (1) and the regression results of “green enterprises” defined by social responsibility score are reported in column (2). It can be seen from Table 3 that the coefficient of core explanatory variables remains positive at the significance level of 1%, which shows that after changing the definition standard of green enterprises, the corresponding regression results are still consistent with the results of benchmark regression.

(2) Placebo Test. In order to further exclude the influence of other unknown factors on the selection of pilot areas and ensure that the green finance pilot causes the conclusions obtained in this paper, this paper further carries out the placebo test. Specifically, this paper takes 1,000 samples from 31 provincial administrative regions, randomly selects five provincial administrative regions as the virtual experimental group, the remaining administrative regions as the virtual control group, and carries out regression according to the benchmark model. The corresponding results are shown in Figure 2 , where the horizontal axis is the t -value of the estimated coefficient, and the vertical axis is the corresponding distribution. It can be seen from Figure 2 that the absolute values of t values of most sampling estimation coefficients are all within 2, far less than the value t of the benchmark regression in this paper, and value p is above 0. It shows that random sampling regression has not achieved significant regression results. Therefore, the conclusion of benchmark regression in this paper has passed the placebo test, and it further proves the robustness of benchmark regression results.

(3) Adding the control variables at the regional level. In this paper, the control variables selected by the benchmark regression are all variables at the company level, and the macroeconomic variables of the company's location will also impact the enterprise value. Therefore, this paper further incorporates the indicators that measure the economic development level of each region, including GDP, per capita GDP, fiscal expenditure, total import and export volume, and the proportion of secondary and tertiary production into the control variables. The corresponding regression results are shown in column (3) of Table 3 , and the regression results are still consistent with the benchmark regression.

(4) Change the standard clustering error. In this paper, the benchmark regression clustering is to the individual enterprise level, and then clustering standards are set to the regional and industry levels, respectively. The corresponding regression results are shown in columns (4) and (5) of Table 3 . Column (4) reports the regression results of clustering the benchmark regression to the regional level, while column (5) clusters to the industry level. It shows that the corresponding regression results are consistent with the benchmark regression after changing the clustering criteria.

(5) PSM-DID Test. To further test the robustness of the benchmark regression of the first group of control experiments, this paper uses the tendency score matching method to match the characteristic variables of the enterprises in the control group and those in the control group to overcome the influence of sample selection bias and then carries out PSM-DID test. The corresponding regression results are shown in column (6) of Table 3 . The regression results are consistent with the benchmark regression results, which is in line with expectations.

(6) Change control group and experimental group. In order to more fully explain green pilot financial policies for the influence of the green enterprise value, this paper further changes in the control group and experimental group, green businesses within the pilot provinces as the treatment group, with the non-green enterprise within the pilot provinces and regions as the control group, to compare the pilot areas within a green and not green enterprises in long-term value differences. Thus, it illustrates the influence of green finance pilot policy on the long-term relative value of green enterprises. The corresponding regression results are shown in column (7) of Table 3 . It can be seen from Table 3 that compared with the non-green enterprises in the pilot provinces, the green finance pilot policy has significantly enhanced the value of green enterprises in the pilot provinces. This result further supports the conclusion drawn from the benchmark regression results that the green finance pilot has significantly enhanced the value of green enterprises from the perspective of relative value.

Table 3 . Robustness test.

Figure 2 . Results of Placebo Test. kernal = epanechnikov, bandwidth = 0.2256.

Analysis of Regulatory Effect

This paper further analyzes the regulatory effect of the related factors that may affect the benchmark regression conclusion. Since green finance has two significant factors, namely “environment” and “finance,” this paper focuses on the influence of regional environmental regulation and financial development level. The greater the environmental regulation in a region, the higher the environmental compliance costs faced by enterprises in the region, eventually reducing the production resources and market share allocated to polluting enterprises. The green enterprises will be able to obtain more abundant resources accordingly. Therefore, the intensity of environmental regulation and green finance pilot policy have a synergistic effect in theory, which can jointly promote the improvement of green enterprise value. For the level of financial development, if a region has a high level of financial development, it has an excellent financial development foundation to carry out green finance pilot in this region, better to play the role of the existing financial infrastructure, more accurately meet the financing needs of green enterprises, and promote the value of green enterprises. In order to test whether the above synergistic effect exists, the following interaction model is constructed in this paper (3):

In which, AJ it is the regulated variable, including the environmental regulation intensity ER and financial development level Fin of a region. The environmental regulation intensity is measured by the number of environmental penalties that have been standardized by the maximum and minimum over the years in the province where the enterprise is located, while the ratio of loans to GDP measures the level of financial development.

(1) Environmental regulation intensity of region. The regression results of the regulatory effect of environmental regulation intensity are shown in column (1) of Table 4 . It can be seen from the table that the coefficient of a cross-product term is positive at the significance level of 10%, indicating that environmental regulation intensity has a positive moderating effect on green finance pilot policies. The greater the intensity of environmental regulation in a region, the more significant the promotion effect of green finance pilots on the value of green enterprises. The empirical results of this moderating effect are consistent with the above theoretical analysis.

(2) Financial development level. The regression results of the regulatory effect of regional financial development level are shown in column (2) of Table 4 . It can be seen from the table that the coefficient of a cross-product term is positive at the significance level of 5%, indicating that the financial development level of a region has a positive moderating effect on green finance pilot policies. The higher a region's financial development level is, the more significant it is to promote the value of green enterprises by launching green financial pilot projects in the region. The empirical results of this regulatory effect are consistent with the above theoretical analysis.

Table 4 . Analysis of regulatory effect.

In conclusion, the stronger the environmental regulation and the higher the financial development level in a region, the more significant the policy effect of carrying out a green financial pilot in the region to enhance the value of green enterprises.

Mechanism Test

According to the analysis of the theoretical part of this paper, the pilot policy of green finance mainly affects the value of green enterprises through two types of channels: on the one hand, it is the capital market channel, which can send the signal of supporting the development of green enterprises to the capital market, reduce the information friction, and affect the judgment of the capital market on the future business environment and performance of green enterprises, thus enabling green enterprises to gain higher market attention and greater market liquidity in the capital market, thus affecting the enterprise value; on the other hand, it is the real effect channel, that is, the green finance pilot improves the technological innovation level of green enterprises by alleviating the financing constraints faced by green enterprises, thus enhancing their profitability and ultimately enhancing their value. For this reason, this paper examines the mechanism from the above two aspects.

(1) The effect of capital market. This paper comprehensively uses the practices of relevant literature ( 23 , 24 ) as a reference, uses annual stock return rate and transaction size to measure the capital market effect of green finance pilot, and constructs the following empirical model (4):

CME it is the explained variable, including annual stock return rate ( yrr ) and trading size adjusted by market value ( tv ). The core explanatory variable is did , it mainly focuses on the coefficient β 1 and reflects the impact of green finance pilot policies on relevant variables.

The corresponding regression results are shown in Table 5 . It can be seen from Table 5 that the green finance pilot policy has significantly improved the annual rate of return and trading scale of green enterprise stocks in the pilot area. The regression results show that the pilot policy of green finance has significantly improved the active degree of trading in the capital market of green enterprises in the pilot areas, made the stocks of green enterprises in the pilot areas more popular in the capital market, and significantly improved their annual rate of return, which ultimately made the value of green enterprises in the pilot areas higher.

(2) Real effect. According to the above theoretical analysis, the green finance pilot project alleviates the financing constraints of green enterprises in the pilot area, reduces information asymmetry, reduces financing costs, and then increases their R&D investment and investment scale, realizing green technology innovation and improving the profitability of enterprises. Therefore, this paper uses SA index ( sa ) ( 25 ), the logarithm of the number of technology patents held ( patents ), and the net profit rate of sales( sales_rate ) that indicates the profitability of enterprises to test the real effect of the green finance pilot policy. This paper constructs the following empirical model (5):

Table 5 . Mechanism test—capital market effect.

In which, RE it is the explained variable, including the above indicators to measure the real effect. The core explanatory variable is Treat i × Time t , it mainly focuses on the coefficient β 1 and reflects the impact of green finance pilot policies on relevant variables.

The corresponding regression results are shown in Table 6 . Table 6 shows that green pilot financial policy significantly reduced the pilot areas green enterprise financing constraints faced by index, pilot areas significantly increased investment scale as well as research and development of the green enterprise of input and output, and reduced the pilot areas green enterprise financing facing premium level, improve the profitability of the green enterprise's pilot areas. The regression results show that the pilot green finance policy for the pilot area green enterprise has a promoting effect on the level of essence, relieve the pilot areas of green enterprise financing constraints, promote the scale of the input and output of technology innovation, and reduce the financing premiums, and ultimately increase the value of the pilot area of green enterprise.

Table 6 . Mechanism test—real effect.

In conclusion, the pilot policy of green finance enhances the attractiveness of green enterprises in the pilot area in the capital market through the channels of capital market effect and real effect, and reduces the financing constraints faced by green enterprises at the entity level, improves the input and output of innovation and research and development, reduces the level of financing premium and improves profitability, thus ultimately promoting the value of green enterprises in the pilot area.

Heterogeneity Analysis

For green enterprises with different characteristics and regions, green finance pilot policies may have heterogeneous impacts. Therefore, this paper further conducts a heterogeneity analysis based on different characteristics of enterprises.

(1) Heterogeneity analysis based on enterprise ownership. According to the nature of ownership, enterprises can be divided into state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises. Since there are significant differences between state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises in terms of R&D resources, contact with government departments, and financing constraints, the ownership nature of enterprises may affect the role of green finance pilot in enterprise value. Compared with non-state-owned enterprises, state-owned enterprises face relatively lower financing constraints. Green enterprises in state-owned enterprises can meet their financing needs through various forms even without developing green finance, while green enterprises in non-state-owned enterprises often face considerable financing constraints. Therefore, through the pilot of green finance, the financing constraints faced by green enterprises in non-state-owned enterprises have been marginally improved to a greater extent, making the impact of the pilot policies on their enterprise value more significant. From the perspective of technological innovation, there are some differences in technological innovation efficiency between state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises: Wei et al. ( 26 ) found that the R&D efficiency of state-owned enterprises is lower than that of private enterprises on the premise of the same scale and resource mismatch. From the above mechanism analysis, it can be seen that the green financial pilot is helpful to promote the technological innovation of green enterprises. As the technological innovation efficiency of non-state-owned enterprises is higher, the expected result is that the green financial pilot has a more noticeable effect on promoting the technological innovation of non-state-owned enterprises, thus significantly enhancing the value of green enterprises in non-state-owned enterprises.

Columns (1) and (2) of Table 7 report the grouped regression results of state-owned and non-state-owned enterprises. It can be seen from Table 7 that the coefficients of core explanatory variables of both state-owned enterprises and non-state-owned enterprises are positive, but state-owned enterprises fail to pass the significance test. This result indicates that the effect of green finance pilot on enhancing the value of green non-state-owned enterprises is more significant.

Table 7 . Heterogeneity analysis results 1.

(2) Heterogeneity analysis based on enterprise industry type. On the one hand, green finance should support the development and growth of emerging green industries, and on the other hand, it should promote the green transformation and upgrading of traditional industries. Therefore, whether it is a new or traditional industry, green finance plays a supporting role to a certain extent. In this paper, the sample is divided into high-tech industry enterprises and traditional industry enterprises for grouping regression. The industry classification standard refers to China High-tech Industry Statistical Yearbook, and the corresponding regression results are shown in columns (3) and (4) of Table 7 . The regression results show that the pilot policy of green finance has significantly promoted the value of both types of enterprises, which shows that green finance has played a supporting and promoting role for both high-tech enterprises and traditional enterprises. In addition, in comparison, the green finance pilot plays a more significant role in enhancing the value of enterprises in traditional industries, which indicates that the green finance pilot policy meets the needs of enterprises in traditional industries for green transformation and transformation and upgrading to a greater extent.

(3) Heterogeneity analysis based on enterprise size. Enterprises can be divided into large enterprises and small, medium, and micro-enterprises according to enterprise size. There are significant differences between them in enterprise size and various constraints. The corresponding regression results are shown in Columns (1) and (2) of Table 8 . The regression results show that the green financial pilot policy can enhance the value of large enterprises and small and medium-sized enterprises in green enterprises. However, it has a more significant impact on large enterprises, while the regression results of small and medium-sized enterprises fail the significance test. The possible reason is that the existing green-finance-pilot policy design process did not fully consider solving the financing difficulties and expensive problems of small, medium, and micro-enterprises. The green finance policy plays a less prominent role in alleviating the financing constraints of small, medium, and micro enterprises, so it still mainly supported the development of large enterprises like traditional finance, thus enhancing the value of large green enterprises more obviously.

(4) Region-based heterogeneity analysis. Finally, this paper divides enterprises into the eastern, central, and western regions according to their registered addresses and discusses the impact of green finance pilot policies in different regions. The corresponding regression results are shown in columns (3–5) of Table 8 . From the regression results, it can be seen that the green financial pilot has the most significant effect on the promotion of the value of green enterprises in the eastern region, while it has no apparent effect on the promotion of the value of green enterprises in the central region. For green enterprises in the western region, the impact of the green financial pilot is even harmful. The regression results show that from the point of view of promoting the value of the green enterprise, east green pilot financial policy effect is best, in the central and western regions is poorer, may cause of this result is that due to our country economy presents the apparent characteristics of plate ladder, east to the Midwest in the different stages of development, so China's relatively developed eastern region focus more on developing green transformation. However, the central and western regions pay more attention to the speed and scale of economic development, and green transformation is not in a priority position. Meanwhile, the eastern region is superior to the central and western regions in terms of infrastructure, financial development, and environmental law enforcement. Therefore, the green finance pilot can play a more significant role in the eastern region, that is, to significantly enhance the value of green enterprises, while the pilot policies in the central and western regions have little effect.

Table 8 . Heterogeneity analysis results 2.

Conclusions

This paper takes the policy of green finance reform and innovation pilot zone in June 2017 as a quasi-natural experiment, and based on the relevant data of green enterprises in A-share listed companies; it examines the impact of green finance pilot policies on the long-term value of green enterprises in pilot areas by using double-difference method. The results show that the green finance pilot has significantly improved the enterprise value measured by Tobin Q in the long run and has a more significant impact on private enterprises, traditional industries, large enterprises, and green enterprises in the eastern region. At the same time, the greater the intensity of environmental regulation and the higher the level of financial development in a region, the more pronounced the effect of green finance pilot. The mechanism analysis shows that the green finance pilot policy mainly promotes the long-term value of green enterprises through the capital market effect of increasing the activity level of stock trading and the real effect of improving enterprise operation. The research results of this paper show that the policy of green finance reform and innovation pilot area promotes the development and value enhancement of green enterprises in the pilot area for a long time, and the regional pilot of green finance has achieved sound policy effects. The research results of this paper show that the development of green finance ultimately enhances the value of green enterprises by improving the capital market performance and actual operating performance of green enterprises, and provides a huge incentive for the green transformation and development of micro enterprises. Under the impact of the Covid-19, the above-mentioned effects of green finance will promote the green transformation of the economy at the micro-enterprise level, and then realize the green recovery of the economy.

Based on the research conclusions of this paper, policy implications can be obtained from the following three aspects: first, further, expand and promote the scope of green finance pilot to promote the development of green enterprises and green economic transformation. The research of this paper shows that the pilot policy of green finance can significantly enhance the long-term value of green enterprises in the pilot area and has a substantial policy effect. It is necessary to support the development and growth of green enterprises to promote the green transformation of the economy. The policy support of green finance is helpful to enhance the value and operational capability of green enterprises. Therefore, the next step should be to expand the coverage of green financial policies in industries and regions, further improve relevant institutional mechanisms, and alleviate the financing constraints faced by green enterprises. Especially in the post-epidemic era, vigorously developing green finance will help promote the green recovery of the economy.

Second, in developing green finance, attention shall be paid to the coordination of policies in other aspects. This study shows that the stronger the environmental regulation policy and the higher the level of financial development, the stronger the policy effect of the green financial pilot. Green finance has dual attributes of “environment” and “finance.” Therefore, when formulating policies and measures to support the development of green finance in the next step, on the one hand, environmental law enforcement should be strengthened to curb the development of highly polluting industries firmly; on the other hand, financial infrastructure should be improved to lay a solid foundation for the development of green finance, to play a synergistic effect and jointly promote the green transformation of the financial system.

Third, the formulation of green financial policies should fully consider the heterogeneity and regional characteristics of enterprises. The heterogeneity analysis of this paper shows that the pilot green finance has little impact on small and medium-sized micro-green enterprises and green enterprises in the central and western regions, indicating that the effect of the pilot green finance on alleviating the financing constraints of small and medium-sized micro-green enterprises is still not noticeable, and it has little effect on the central and western regions which are still in the underdeveloped stage. At present, it is more urgent to solve the requirements of financing difficulties and expensive financing for small, medium, and micro-enterprises, and the related problems are also urgent for green enterprises in small, medium, and micro-enterprises. Therefore, the next step in the design of green financial policies should be more inclined to support the green transformation and development of small, medium, and micro-enterprises and alleviate the financing constraints of the small, medium, and microgreen enterprises, to achieve a win-win policy of green transformation and to alleviate the problematic financing of small, medium and micro-enterprises. Because the central and western regions are relatively underdeveloped, they pay more attention to the speed and scale of economic development. The green transformation is not in a priority position, which ultimately makes the green financial pilot in the central and western regions have little effect.” lucid waters and lush mountains are invaluable assets,” therefore, in the next step, the assessment criteria should be improved. The weight of green development and environmental improvement in local development assessment indicators should be further enhanced. Meanwhile, efforts should be made to improve the financial development level and environmental law enforcement in the central and western regions to promote the green transformation of the central and western regions.

Finally, at present, for a developing country like China, to achieve green recovery, it is still facing real difficulties such as high green transition costs and insufficient technological innovation capabilities. Therefore, the next step should be to vigorously develop green finance as an important guarantee for green recovery. On the one hand, in terms of corporate investment and financing, China should formulate calibrated quantitative standards as soon as possible, form a complete green investment and financing standard system, and provide support and guidance for corporate green financing, so as to standardize the development model and direction of green industries. In response to the difficulties faced by enterprises in the process of green recovery, green finance should focus on supporting enterprises' technological upgrading and digital transformation. On the other hand, climate and environmental risk management is also a problem that needs to be addressed in the next step for green finance. Innovative green insurance and green financial derivatives markets can provide risk protection for the green and low-carbon transformation of enterprises, thereby ensuring a stable economic recovery in the post-epidemic era.

Data Availability Statement

The datasets presented in this study can be found in online repositories. The names of the repository/repositories and accession number(s) can be found at: https://www.gtarsc.com/ ; https://www.wind.com.cn/NewSite/edb.html .

Author Contributions

JH, JL, YL, WW, and LZ: conceptualization. XL and WW: methodology. JH, JL, and WW: formal analysis and investigation. YL and LZ: supervision. XL: validation. All authors contributed to the article and approved the submitted version.

This work was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China Youth Project (71902050).

Conflict of Interest

The authors declare that the research was conducted in the absence of any commercial or financial relationships that could be construed as a potential conflict of interest.

Publisher's Note

All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article, or claim that may be made by its manufacturer, is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Keywords: COVID-19, green recovery, green finance, green enterprise, pilot zone, enterprise value

Citation: Hu J, Li J, Li X, Liu Y, Wang W and Zheng L (2021) Will Green Finance Contribute to a Green Recovery? Evidence From Green Financial Pilot Zone in China. Front. Public Health 9:794195. doi: 10.3389/fpubh.2021.794195

Received: 13 October 2021; Accepted: 27 October 2021; Published: 19 November 2021.

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Copyright © 2021 Hu, Li, Li, Liu, Wang and Zheng. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY) . The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) and the copyright owner(s) are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

*Correspondence: Wenwei Wang, 1062091215@qq.com

† These authors have contributed equally to this work and share first authorship

Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.

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Green finance.

Key information

Module overview.

The module introduces students to the topic of green finance and its potential contribution to a sustainable economy in the context of climate change and the transition to a low-carbon economy. Specifically, the module supports students in understanding how climate and other environmental risks create potential financial risks in banking and capital markets and analyses the role of financial actors in driving and potentially mitigating these risks. Students will be exposed to both traditional and alternative risk management approaches and investment theory frameworks used to process and quantify these risks, as well as a range of case studies on the role and impact of institutional investors, banks, financial supervisory authorities and governments in aligning financial markets with climate and environmental goals. Students will obtain a strong qualitative grounding building a fundamental understanding of the linkages between the real economy, environmental risk and financial markets. Moreover, students will be trained in quantitative research, getting hands-on experience in working with complex and varied climate and portfolio datasets drawing on real life analytical examples across thousands of equity and bond funds. The module will help students to obtain skills necessary to work and do research in a cutting-edge area of finance and environment that is increasingly becoming an important topic for both financial institutions and financial authorities.

Objectives and learning outcomes of the module

On successful completion of this module a student will be able to:

• Gain a thorough understanding of how capital markets work and their interface with the real economy, from both a theoretical and practitioners' perspective;
• Recognise the quality and challenges related to using climate scenarios and climate data in financial analysis, and be able to critically evaluate the caveats of different data sets, as well as apply them in practice;
• Develop a fundamental understanding of what defines environmental trends and the potential risk and opportunity they present to financial markets, with a particular emphasis on climate risks;
• Create overview of the range of approaches in environmental risk modelling at physical asset, company, equity, credit, portfolio, and financial market level;
• Create an in-depth understanding of the range of financial policy instruments and initiatives and their potential with regard to integrating environmental constraints in financial policy and supervisory framework.
• Critically evaluate the potential impact of financial markets on the real economy and the sustainable development challenge.

Method of assessment

AS1 - 25% / AS2 - 40% / OR1 - 10% / PR1 - 25%

Suggested reading

• Dupré, S. and H. Chenet (2012), Connecting the Dots between Climate Goals, Portfolio Allocation and Financial Regulation. Paris: 2° Investing Initiative.
• Griffin, P.A., A. Myers Jaffe, D.H. Lont and R. Dominguez-Faus (2015), “Science and the Stock Market: Investor’s Recognition of Unburnable Carbon,” Energy Economics 52 (A), 1-12.
• IISD and DRC (2015), Greening China’s Financial System. Winnipeg and Beijing: Institute for Sustainable Development and Development Research Center of the State Council.
• Kidney, S. et al. (2015), Shifting Private Finance towards Climate-Friendly Investments. Report for the European Commission DG Climate.
• McGlade, C. and P. Ekins (2015), “The Geographical Distribution of Fossil Fuels Unused When Limiting Global Warming to 2°C,” Nature 517, 187-190.
• OECD (2017), Investing in Climate, Investing in Growth. A Synthesis. Paris: Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
• Robins, N. and S. Zadek (2016), The Financial System We Need: From Momentum to Transformation. Geneva: UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System.
• Thomä, J., S. Dupré and M. Hayne (2018), “A Taxonomy of Climate Accounting Principles for Financial Portfolios,” Sustainability 10, 328, 1-18.
• Volz, U. (2017), On the Role of Central Banks in Enhancing Green Finance. Geneva: UNEP Inquiry into the Design of a Sustainable Financial System.
• Vörösmarty, C.J., V. Rodríguez Osuna, D.A. Koehler, P. Klop, J.D. Spengler, J.J. Buonocore, A.D. Cak, Z.D. Tessler, F. Corsi, P.A. Green, and R. Sanchez (2018), “Scientifically Assess Impacts of Sustainable Investments,” Science 359 (6375), 523-525.

Important notice regarding changes to programmes and modules

Professor Jakob Thomäe

Sustainable Finance, Climate Risk, Stress-tests, Financial Supervision, Long-termism.

Professor Ulrich Volz

International Finance, Open Economy Macroeconomics, Financial Market Development and Stability, Development and Transition Economics, Global Economic Governance, East Asian Financial Markets

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