Here we gather scientific publications from the Mistra FinBio program and the researcher involved in the project.
Breaking the ESG rating divergence: An open geospatial framework for environmental scores
Rossi, C., J. G. D. Byrne, C. Christiaen. 2024. Breaking the ESG rating divergence: An open geospatial framework for environmental scores, Journal of Environmental Management, Volume 349. Available online 7 November 2023.
Information about a company’s environmental, social and governance (ESG) performance has become increasingly important in the decision-making process of financial institutions. The financial implications of environmental challenges (e.g. water stress), negative social impacts (e.g. health impacts in local communities) or poor corporate governance (e.g. breaching legislation) all continue to increase. Accordingly, there is a need for financial institutions to incorporate information on ESG risks, opportunities and impacts in decisions that relate to risk management, investments, credit, strategy, and reporting. Read more
Sustainable Finance as a Moral Obligation
Sandberg, J. 2023. Sustainable Finance as a Moral Obligation, The Reasoner 17 (3): 22-23.
Sustainable finance is basically about activities undertaken by financial agents, such as banks or investment funds, to support the transition of society towards greater social and environmental sustainability. This has recently become a major topic of interest among private market participants and public policy makers. One could say that there is a growing consensus around the idea that finance and investment have an important role to play in the sustainability transition. Read more
Financial influence on global risks of zoonotic emerging and re-emerging diseases: an integrative analysis
Galaz, V., Rocha, J., Sánchez-García, P., Dauriach, A., Roukny, T. & Søgaard Jørgensen, P. 2023. Financial influence on global risks of zoonotic emerging and re-emerging diseases: an integrative analysis. Lancet Planetary Health.
Emerging and re-emerging infectious diseases (EIDs), such as Ebola virus disease and highly pathogenic influenza, are serious threats to human health and wellbeing worldwide. The financial sector has an important, yet often ignored, influence as owners and investors in industries that are associated with anthropogenic land-use changes in ecosystems linked to increased EIDs risks. We aimed to analyse financial influence associated with EIDs risks that are affected by anthropogenic land-use changes. We also aimed to provide empirical assessments of such influence to help guide engagements by governments, private organisations, and non-governmental organisations with the financial sector to advance a planetary health agenda. Read more
The forward-looking polluter pays principle for a just climate transition
Corvino, F. 2023. The Forward-Looking Polluter Pays Principle for a Just Climate Transition. Critical Review of International Social and Political Philosophy, online first, pp. 1-28.
Climate justice demands polluters to take responsibility for both present and future harm caused by past GHG emissions and for future harm caused by future GHG emissions. One problem with this is double climate taxation: people living in historical polluting countries must both shoulder the burden of an effective and inclusive climate transition and repay the climate debt incurred by their predecessors. Read more
Climate Change and the Circumstances of Justice
Corvino, F. 2023. Climate Change and the Circumstances of Justice, In Handbook of the Philosophy of Climate Change, edited by Gianfranco Pellegrino and Marcello Di Paola. New York: Springer, pp. 1-17.
This chapter questions whether the objective circumstances of justice, and in particular the assumption of mutual advantage, apply to climate action. The first part of the chapter explains why two asymmetries, of benefits and costs, further exacerbated by intergenerational conflicts, both past and future oriented, make climate change an intricate multiplayer prisoner’s dilemma. The second part of the chapter analyses whether and how the two asymmetries can be scaled down, based on a series of empirical arguments: global vulnerability to local economic setbacks, financial risks and security threats (benefit asymmetry), co-benefits of the energy transition immediately collectable, especially in developed and some emerging countries (cost asymmetry), moral, axiological and economic benefits of intergenerational sustainability (intergenerational conflicts). The conclusion is that the circumstances of justice, that make climate cooperation both possible and necessary, obtain, in spite of the two global asymmetries and of intergenerational conflicts. Read more
Global Climate Justice: Theory and Practice
Corvino, F., & Andina, T. eds. 2023. Global Climate Justice: Theory and Practice. Bristol, UK: E-International Relations.
This book offers philosophical and interdisciplinary insights into global climate justice with a view to climate neutrality by the middle of the twenty-first century. The first section brings together a series of introductory contributions on the state of the climate crisis, covering scientific, historical, diplomatic and philosophical dimensions. The second section focuses on the challenges of justice and responsibility to which the climate crisis exposes and will expose the global community in the coming years: on the one hand, aiming for the ambitious mitigation target of 1.5°C and, on the other hand, securing resources for adaptation and for climate-damage compensation to the most vulnerable. The third section investigates normative aspects of the transition towards a fossil-fuel free society, from the responsibility of oil companies to the gender-differentiated effects of climate change, passing through what is owed to transition losers and the legal protection of future generations. Read more
Going beyond carbon: An “Earth system impact” score to better capture corporate and investment impacts on the earth system
Crona, B., Parlato, G., Lade, S., Fetzer, I., & Maus, V. 2023. Going beyond carbon: An” Earth system impact” score to better capture corporate and investment impacts on the earth system. Journal of Cleaner Production, 429, 139523.
Corporations are responsible for a significant portion of observed impacts on the Earth system, including green-house gas (GHG) emissions, but also water extraction, landuse change and other pressures on nature. These nature-related impacts are essential to consider and capture because they have local impacts on a range of ecosystem functions on which companies and economies depend, but they also fundamentally affect our ability to mitigate and adapt to a changing climate. Furthermore, climate, land and water interact and affect each other in various ways, such that climate change can be exacerbated by degraded ecosystems, which in turn are dependent on water. Read more
Sweet Spots or Dark Corners? An environmental sustainability examination of Big Data and AI in ESG
Crona, B., & Sundström, E. 2023. Sweet Spots or Dark Corners? An Environmental Sustainability View of Big Data and Artificial Intelligence in ESG. In Handbook of Big Data and Analytics in Accounting and Auditing (pp. 105-131). Singapore: Springer Nature Singapore.
This chapter examines environmental aspects of ESG and risks and opportunities for using big data and AI to capture these in ESG ratings. It starts by outlining the difference between relative and absolute sustainability and what this means for delivering on globally agreed upon targets, such as the Sustainable Development Goals. We then look at what the state-of-the-art climate and Earth System science has to offer investors interested in absolute environmental sustainability. Next we discuss the risks associated with a blurring of concepts relating to sustainability and materiality, and examine and contrast conventional ESG rating procedures with new approaches informed by big data (BD) and artificial intelligence (AI) to understand what this new generation of tools can offer investors interested in sustainability. We note a current misalignment between stated ambitions of investors, and the ability to deliver on stated goals through the use of current ESG metrics and ratings. We therefore finish with suggestions for how to better align these and how those interested in ESG can become more ‘sustainability savvy’ consumers of such ratings. Read more
Climate Change, the Non-identity Problem, and the Metaphysics of Transgenerational Actions
Andina, T., & Corvino, F. 2023. Climate Change, the Non-Identity Problem, and the Metaphysics of Transgenerational Actions, In Handbook of the Philosophy of Climate Change, edited by Gianfranco Pellegrino and Marcello Di Paola. New York: Springer, pp. 1-22.
Why should one take action to move toward a greener world if doing so will cause the birth of a totally different group of future people? This chapter starts from the metaphysical evidence that many collective climate actions imply a change in the identity of future generations, as opposed to a counterfactual laissez-faire attitude. The climatic fallout from the non-identity paradox introduced by Derek Parfit is examined to determine if and how a principle of transgenerational responsibility can be defended against this metaphysical complexity. The paradox is divided into a moral argument, based on the person-affecting view of harm, and a metaphysical premise, treating non-identity as a result of variations in timing and pair combination of a person’s conception. Three strategies to circumvent the moral argument are explored: non-consequentialist accounts of harm, moral thresholds, and impersonal ethics. However, it is argued that all three strategies fall short or come with too high a cost. The metaphysical premise is then examined through the introduction of transgenerational actions in relation to the climate crisis. A principle of transgenerational responsibility applicable to climate change mitigation is inferred from the hypothetical consent to be obtained from those who will continue transgenerational actions in the future. Read more
Transgenerational Social Structures and Fictional Actors: Community-Based Responsibility for Future Generations
Andina, T, & Corvino, F. 2023. Transgenerational Social Structures and Fictional Actors: Community-Based Responsibility for Future Generations. The Monist 106 (2): 150–164.
The notion of transgenerational community is usually based on two diachronic interactions. The first interaction consists of present generations taking up the legacy (not only economic, but also institutional, artistic, cultural, and so forth) of past generations and giving it continuity, exercising a form of active agency. The second interaction occurs when present generations pass on their legacy to future generations. This is supposed to expand the boundaries of the community in a transgenerational sense (both backward- and forward-looking). In this article we argue that the transgenerational community can be grounded on a different ontological insight: future generations play the role of fictional actors for present generations, i.e., present generations entertain a present-time interaction with future generations, insofar as future generations are functional for the realization of transgenerational actions. This lays the foundations for more solid community-based bonds of intergenerational justice. Read more
