20130218-世界经济论坛-Financial_Regulation_–_Biased_against_Clean_Energy_and_Green_Infrastructure_5页_954kb

The paper "Financial Regulation – Biased against Clean Energy and Green Infrastructure?" analyzes how various financial regulations limit investment in clean energy and green infrastructure, despite supportive policies. It argues that existing rules governing pension funds, banks, insurance companies, and other institutions create barriers that discourage long-term, high-capital investments in these areas, potentially hindering global efforts to address climate change.

Key issues identified include:

• Pension fund regulations promoting conservative asset allocation and high-risk aversion, discouraging investments in renewable energy despite potential long-term benefits.
• Basel III rules restricting long-term project finance, disproportionately affecting wind and solar projects due to high upfront costs.
• Solvency II regulations pushing insurers to hold liquid assets like government bonds, reducing appetite for climate-related long-term investments.
• Inadequate risk disclosure requirements, failing to capture climate and environmental risks, leading investors to avoid such projects.
• Border challenges from ratings agencies, which poorly assess systemic risks; and limited cross-border investment in developing regions due to low ratings.
• Public sector rules that embed liability costs in budgets, pressuring governments to scale back clean energy incentives like feed-in tariffs.
• Potential restrictions from state aid laws on public banks supporting emerging technologies across the "valley of death."

The analysis concludes that these factors constitute an "investment bias" against clean energy and green infrastructure, leading to lower capital flows than economically optimal levels. Current GDP is insufficient to meet emissions reduction targets, with pension funds and banks contributing minimally. Removing such biases could significantly boost investment, though further work is needed to quantify remedies and implement changes.

In essence, reforming financial regulations to incorporate climate and environmental risks is crucial for accelerating sustainable infrastructure investments globally.