Miriam Breitenstein
- 13 September 2022
- OCCASIONAL PAPER SERIES - No. 303Details
- Abstract
- Climate change can be a source of financial risk. This paper examines how credit rating agencies accepted by the Eurosystem incorporate climate change risk in their credit ratings. It also analyses how rating agencies disclose their assessments of climate change risks to rating users. The paper develops an analytical framework to compare the agencies’ definitions, methodologies, assessment models, data usage and disclosure practices. The paper reveals large differences in methodologies and disclosure practices across rating agencies and asset classes. The authors identify three main areas for improvement with respect to climate-related disclosures. These areas concern the level of granularity of definitions of climate change risk, the transparency around models and methods used to estimate the exposure to climate change risk and the disclosure of the magnitude of the impact of material climate change risk on credit ratings.
- JEL Code
- E52 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Monetary Policy
E58 : Macroeconomics and Monetary Economics→Monetary Policy, Central Banking, and the Supply of Money and Credit→Central Banks and Their Policies
G24 : Financial Economics→Financial Institutions and Services→Investment Banking, Venture Capital, Brokerage, Ratings and Ratings Agencies
G32 : Financial Economics→Corporate Finance and Governance→Financing Policy, Financial Risk and Risk Management, Capital and Ownership Structure, Value of Firms, Goodwill
Q54 : Agricultural and Natural Resource Economics, Environmental and Ecological Economics→Environmental Economics→Climate, Natural Disasters, Global Warming