Financial professionals and climate experts have diverging perspectives on climate action

Elisabeth Gsottbauer, Michael Kirchler and Christian König-Kersting

LSE Research Online Documents on Economics from London School of Economics and Political Science, LSE Library

Abstract: To address the climate crisis, it is necessary to transform the economy, with the finance industry taking a central role by implementing sustainable investment policies. This study aims to understand the motivations and preferences of its key players—financial professionals and climate experts. Here we use an incentivized experiment to measure the willingness to forgo payout to curb carbon emissions and a survey to elicit attitudes and beliefs toward the climate crisis. We provide suggestive evidence that financial professionals have a lower willingness to curb carbon emissions, are less concerned about climate change, and are less supportive of carbon taxes compared to climate experts. We report differences in motivations and priorities, with financial professionals emphasizing economic and reputational considerations and climate experts prioritizing ecological and social consequences of the crisis. Our findings highlight the importance of financial incentives and reputational concerns in motivating financial professionals to address the climate crisis.

JEL-codes: Q50 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Pages: 10 pages
Date: 2024-03-27
New Economics Papers: this item is included in nep-ene, nep-env, nep-exp and nep-mac
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Published in Communications Earth and Environment, 27, March, 2024, 5. ISSN: 2662-4435

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Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:ehl:lserod:122590

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