Seeing Green: The Effects of Financial Exposures on Support for Climate Action

Michelle Hanlon, Saumitra Jha, Namrata Kala, Nemit Shroff and Chagai Weiss

No 21259, CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research

Abstract: Despite the large common net benefits of climate mitigation, broad-based political consensus for large-scale policy action remains elusive. We hypothesize that financial exposure to energy stocks central to the green transition can induce learning and greater support for climate mitigation policies. We conduct a RCT which randomizes both the presence of financial market exposure to the energy sector, as well as which type of portfolio — fossil-fuel (brown) or renewable energy (green) — is given to an individual. Treatment increases support for mitigation action and intent to undertake adaptation, with positive support caused by ownership of both green and brown assets. The effects are particularly pronounced among individuals who are initially more climate-skeptic, and persist eight months after treatment. We present evidence consistent with learning as the primary mechanism: treated respondents are more likely to consume financial news and become more financially knowledgeable, less likely to obtain news from polarized sources, and better able to accurately predict the environmental impacts of green and brown firms.

Keywords: Climate change; Climate change mitigation support; Financial markets; Climate policy (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: G11 G41 G53 Q48 Q54 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2026-03
References: Add references at CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://cepr.org/publications/DP21259 (application/pdf)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:cpr:ceprdp:21259

Ordering information: This working paper can be ordered from
https://cepr.org/publications/DP21259

Access Statistics for this paper

More papers in CEPR Discussion Papers from Centre for Economic Policy Research 33 Great Sutton Street, London EC1V 0DX, UK.
Bibliographic data for series maintained by CEPR ().