On September 29th, 2021, the Steering Committee of the Interdisciplinary Research Programme “Green and Sustainable Finance” (GSF) was held. It was an opportunity to take stock of the research carried out in 2020 and to determine the focus areas for the year 2021/2022.

The GSF programme of the Institut Louis Bachelier aims to respond to the challenges of sustainable finance by conducting targeted research adapted to operational needs. In this regard, the 2020 objectives of the programme were multifold:

  • Develop a multidisciplinary coordination dynamic between existing French research programmes interested in green finance.
  • Stimulate new research initiatives on topics with potential applicability in green finance.
  • Create a Green Data Lab, a reliable source of data related to green and sustainable finance for the academic and professional community.

These objectives have led to the identification of three key research areas for the scientific advancement of sustainable finance: risk analysis, impact and data.

Although climate is an important risk for financial products and actors, little quantitative and qualitative data is available regarding its measurement. Therefore, the Green and Sustainable Finance programme has focused on three main issues: physical risk, transition risk and their management by financial actors.

Measuring alignment with the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement is also a key issue for financial actors.  The Institute Louis Bachelier has worked with I4CE – Institut de l’Economie pour le Climat on a clear and transparent definition of portfolio alignment at the request of the French Ministry of Ecological Transition and WWF in the study “The Alignment Cookbook: A Technical Review of Methodologies Assessing a Portfolio’s Alignment with Low-Carbon Trajectories or Temperature Goal“.

In addition to these issues, data, its availability and access, constitute a real lever for action for financial players. This major issue for sustainable finance is the subject of research within the Green and Sustainable Finance Programme, based on its expertise in data through the DataLab and its involvement in the Scientific and Expert Committee of the Sustainable Finance Observatory.

The work of the GSF Programme has led to the identification of new areas of research that address recent issues in sustainable finance. This programme, which wishes to maintain a multifaceted approach, seeks to extend its expertise to Just Transition issues. There is also a strong interest in living carbon issues, and more particularly in the path that agriculture must take in this transition.

 

For more information on the Green and Sustainable Finance programme, click here.