How has COVID-19 affected the performance of green investment funds?

Leveraging green finance and technological innovations for sustainable urban development: A comparative study of Chinese mega-cities

Being worlds' largest population, China is the biggest consumer of natural resources and causes the highest Carbon emissions due to its energy needs for economic development. This research aims to analyze the relationship between green finance, natural resources, carbon releases, and foreign direct investment on China's efforts towards durable economic sustainability. Difference-in-Difference frameworks are utilized to analyze the statistics acquired from 270 Chinese cities between 2002 and 2022. The findings indicate that the financial implications of carbon emissions significantly affect China's sustainable green economy. However, the short-term growth of the green economy is enhanced by the use of natural resources and the advancement of green financial markets. The results of this study provide empirical evidence that supports the theory positing a linear association among carbon releases, economic expansion, and natural resources. This study provides guidance to policymakers to make policies for enhanced and efficient use of natural resources. This may potentially contribute to the promotion of long-term sustainability in China and the facilitation of green growth.

Geopolitical risks and climate change stocks

This paper aims to examine the impact of geopolitical risk (GPR), threats (GPT) and acts (GPA) on returns and volatilities of regional climate change stocks under different market conditions, employing quantile regressions. Our main results suggest that climate change stock returns positively (negatively) respond to GPR in bullish (bearish) market states, however the effect is not uniform across the regions. The volatilities mainly show a positive response to geopolitical tensions; geopolitical acts appear to have a more pronounced impact on volatilities than geopolitical threats. We further find that GPR leads to higher volatility during the Russia-Ukraine war, creating heightened uncertainty. Overall, the results reveal that geopolitical risks have an asymmetric and heterogenous impact on climate change stocks. The results provide significant insights and implications for financial market participants and policy makers.