Karen Wendt

Title : The impact of carbon disclosure on the market value of financial industry companies

Abstract:

This study assesses the carbon disclosure practices of financial institutions and insurance companies listed in the MSCI World based on a mixed-method content and panel regression analysis. Previous empirical investigations could not relate performance of financial institutions and insurance companies with risk or impacts to society. The guiding research question for this work is how and to what extent are financial institutions and insurance companies disclosing carbon-related information. The results show that similar to previous studies, the performances of the financial sector cannot be assessed with respect to climate change, and they cannot be related to market valuation either. However, some insurers have suffered insurance cases from climate adaptation and hazards, leading them to stop insuring carbon-loaded assets alongside with divesting from some carbon-intensive assets.

Biography:

Karen Wendt is the editor of the Sustainable Finance Series with Springer Science and Business Media, a series dealing with new concepts in Economy, Leadership, Investment, Finance, Strategy, Management, Exponential Tech, and Behavior. Karen is also a serial entrepreneur. Her mission is to merge economy and business with purpose and passion to implement the Sustainable Development Goals (#SDGs) using Choice Architecture and applying Theories of Change. She combines investment, strategy, ideation and mediation knowledge with investment and finance as well as network and movement building skills. She pioneered in the creation of the Equator Principles, the Gold Standard in investment banking for achieving human rights assessments and respect in business, de-risking assets from extra-financial risks and crafting a more integral approach towards decision-making, opportunity recognition and positive impact creation.