The Centre for Climate Finance & Investment undertakes cutting-edge research on how capital markets are responding to global climate change.
Helping investors and policymakers overcome the lack of clarity about risk and opportunities arising in a changing climate. Our research covers five workstreams: Climate Risk Scenarios and Stress Testing; Nature; Clean Energy Investing; Climate Finance Markets and Instruments; and Adaptation and Resilience.
The Centre works closely with the Grantham Institute – Climate Change and the Environment and the Brevan Howard Centre for Financial Analysis. Imperial College Business School launched the MSc Climate Change, Management & Finance in September 2016 in partnership with the Grantham Institute.
Recent reports

Financial Implications of Carbon Pricing in the Asian Cement and Steel Industries
Carbon pricing sits high on the COP28 agenda. High carbon-emitting businesses in Asia will see consistent negative profits if they fail to decarbonise. This new report from the Centre for Climate Finance & Investment aims to quantify the effect of carbon pricing systems on leading cement and steel producers.
Read more

What is a just transition and how does it affect the financial sector?
A just transition aims to address the adverse socio-economic effects a low-carbon transition might cause, thus preventing or at least mitigating any social harm. It stems from the realisation that a net-zero future would not be possible without appropriate consideration of the social injustices that it might bring.
Read more

Corporate action on biodiversity: an exploration of drivers
Biodiversity investing is yet to be a prominent feature across the corporate universe, according to a report authored, through Imperial Consultants.
Read more

Nature Investment as a Response to the Climate Crisis: Opportunities in Southeast Asia
A new report from the CCFI aims to offer investors a menu of nature investment options, from ‘armchair investing’ in fixed-income markets, to money directed at real assets where investors are tied in over time.
Read more

ASEAN Renewables Challenges and Opportunities
This report from the Centre for Climate Finance & Investment and the IEA explores the opportunities, risks and challenges of renewables energy investments in the Association of South East Asian Nations (ASEAN).
Read more

Are Markets Interested in Adapting to Climate? Insights From Singapore
New research from the Singapore Green Finance Centre finds far-reaching interventions are needed to overcome existing shortcomings in Singapore’s approach to climate adaptation projects.
Read more

Forestry-Backed Assets Design
New research from the Singapore Green Finance Centre finds that bundling forest investments across forest ages, geographies, and ecosystems can reduce investment risk by half or more.
Read more

Financial Accounting For Carbon Finance: A New Standard For A New Paradigm
A new policy paper offering new insights into carbon financial accounting and extending our previous COP26 Green Finance Report.
Read more

Future of Food Part 3 – Can Markets Save Nature? Investing in Nature to Tackle Biodiversity Loss and Enhance Food Security
The third in a series of reports exploring the risks and opportunities facing the global agricultural sector from climate change, produced in partnership with Standard Chartered.
Read more

Adaptation Bonds: Lessons from the US Municipal Bond Market to Help Close the Adaptation Financing Gap
Read our newest report, where Honorary Research Fellow Bob Buhr proposes an innovative way to tackle the "adaptation funding gap".
Read more

Information on Hot Stuff: Do Lenders Pay Attention?
New research from CCFI Post-Doctorate Associate Mandeep Singh suggests that banks factor information on local abnormal high temperature occuranes into their lending decisions.
Read more

Damage Limitation: Cryptocurrencies and Climate Change
Efforts must be made to make cryptocurrency mining less energy-intensive to limit the ever-worsening impact on the climate, despite the acknowledged financial benefits of cryptocurrencies.
Read more

Linkages Between GHG Emissions Scenarios, Temperature Rises & Physical Climate Risk Events in South East Asia
New research by Mandeep Singh, Research Associate at the CCFI, discusses the historical linkages between increased temperatures caused by climate change and natural disasters.
Read more

The Great Carbon Arbitrage
New research co-authored by Patrick Bolton, Professor of Finance and Economics at the CCFI, demonstrates how the social benefits would outweigh the costs of a transition from coal to renewable energy.
Read more

Net-Zero Carbon Portfolio Alignment
New research into achieving Net-Zero through active and passive portfolios. The paper outlines a methodology to align portfolios with a science-based carbon budget, consistent with maintaining a global temperature rise below 1.5oC.
Read more

Financial Services and Net Zero: Seizing the Opportunity
An exploration of the role of financial services in decarbonising the British economy.
Read more

Downscaling of Physical Risks for Climate Scenario Design
Downscaling of Physical Risks for Climate Scenario Design White Paper
Read more

Climate Infrastructure Investing: Risks and Opportunities for Unlisted Renewables
The third in a series of joint reports between the Centre for Climate and Investment (CCFI) and the International Energy Agency (IEA).
Read more

What Is Climate Risk? A Field Guide for Investors, Lenders and Regulators
Financial climate risks of concern need rigorous definition for analysis. Forthcoming CCFI research presents a model climate risk taxonomy that encapsulates a broad range of potential physical and transition risks.
Read more

Complex but Crucial: The Private Sector and Jurisdictional REDD+ (Reducing emissions from deforestation and forest degradation)
Research paper co-authored by CCFI Research Fellow Pernille Holtedahl on options for private sector involvement under Jurisdictional REDD+.
Read more

Future of Food Part 2: Nature-based solutions and the quest for low-carbon and climate-resilient agriculture
Research report exploring the potential for nature-based solutions to tackle the interlinkages between agriculture, land use, and climate change.
Read more

Voluntary Carbon Markets in ASEAN: Challenges and Opportunities for Scaling Up
UK’s COP26 Universities Network and leading research centres in Singapore partner on policy reports highlighting climate change in the ASEAN region.
Read more

Climate Change and the Future of Food
An investigation into financial risks to the agriculture sector due to climate change in India and emerging markets. The second in the ongoing partnership with Standard Chartered.
Read more
The Race for Green Capital in Emerging Markets
Emerging markets are highly vulnerable to climate change and require significant amounts of foreign capital to fund transition, mitigation, and adaption measures. EM is not capturing its share of the potential. Our paper explores the reasons why.
Read more

Clean Energy Investing: Global Comparison of Investment Returns
A joint report by the International Energy Agency and the Centre for Climate Finance & Investment compares global investment returns for renewables versus fossil fuels.
Read more

A Guide to Building Climate-Financial Scenarios for Financial Institutions
This briefing considers how the financial sector can manage the risks associated with moving to a zero-carbon future, why it is essential for financial institutions to understand climate transition scenarios, and sets out a framework for their use.
Read more