“Carbon bubble” and “stranded assets”: Making and governing climate related transition risks

“碳泡沫”和“搁浅资产”：制造和治理与气候相关的转型风险

• 批准号: 433336180
• 负责人: Dr. Andreas Folkers
• 金额: --
• 依托单位: Institut für Soziologie
• 依托单位国家: 德国
• 项目类别: Research Grants
• 财政年份: 2019
• 资助国家: 德国
• 起止时间: 2018-12-31 至 2023-12-31
• 项目状态: 已结题
• 来源: https://gepris.dfg.de/gepris/projekt/433336180?language=en
• 关键词: Carbon; bubble; stranded; assets; Making

The project examines social strategies to cope with risks and uncertain futures at the intersection of climate politics and finance. Adopting a theoretically informed perspective that draws on methods of qualitative social research the project looks at the ways stakeholders from civil society, politics, and finance frame and cope with the effects of a transition towards a low-carbon economy in the financial sector. Empirically, the project focuses on controversies around the issues of “carbon bubble” and “stranded assets”, that is, the ecologically and economically controversial problem that a consistent implementation of international climate goals could contribute to a massive devaluation of the financial assets of fossil capitalism (especially fuel reserves and energy infrastructures). The topic, which was first brought up for discussion by non-governmental organizations, meanwhile has also caught the attention of key players in the financial sector as well as financial regulators raising the question of how to govern the risks of a devaluation of carbon-intensive assets, so-called transition risks. By looking at the problematization process in financial publics as well as the governance of transition risks, the project illuminates two crucial sites where heterogenous actors try to align cognitive economic expectations with global climate goals.In a first step, the project examines the cognitive and normative framings that have carved out “carbon bubble” and “stranded assets” as financial problem spaces. The project addresses finance not just as an economic but also as a political field of action and focusses on new forms of public engagement that strategically target the risk sensitivity of financial markets to enforce a climate protection agenda. In a second step, the project analyses modes of governing transition risks. It focusses on regulatory initiatives that seek to render transition risks measurable and therefore manageable by strengthening climate related financial information in corporate reporting practices. The project thus seeks to identify a new form of financial risk governance that attempts to modify economic expectations by addressing the informational infrastructure of financial markets. The project seeks to highlight the opportunities, limits and paradoxes of attempts to implement a climate protection agenda in finance. In particular, it examines whether translating climate related indicators into financial information runs the risk to compromise environmental concerns. Politicizing financial markets for climate protection purposes could potentially backfire if this contributes to a financialization of climate politics. Combining empirical analysis with theoretical reflection, the project substantially contributes to the analysis of contemporary societies by critically illuminating the entanglements between financial and climate risks, which scholars widely regard as key elements of the “world risk society" (Beck).

该项目考察了在气候政治和金融的交叉点上应对风险和不确定未来的社会战略。该项目采用了理论上知情的观点，借鉴了定性的社会研究方法，着眼于民间社会、政治和金融领域的利益攸关方如何制定框架并应对金融部门向低碳经济转型的影响。从经验上看，该项目聚焦于围绕“碳泡沫”和“搁浅资产”问题的争议，即持续执行国际气候目标可能导致化石资本主义的金融资产(特别是燃料储备和能源基础设施)大幅贬值的生态和经济争议问题。这个话题最初是由非政府组织提出讨论的，同时也引起了金融部门主要参与者以及金融监管机构的注意，提出了如何管理碳密集型资产贬值的风险，即所谓的过渡风险。通过观察金融公众的问题化过程以及转型风险的治理，该项目阐明了两个关键地点，在这些地点，不同的行为者试图将认知经济预期与全球气候目标保持一致。在第一步，该项目审查了将“碳泡沫”和“搁浅资产”划分为金融问题空间的认知和规范框架。该项目不仅将金融作为一种经济领域，还将其作为一种政治行动领域，并将重点放在新的公共参与形式上，这些新形式的公共参与从战略上针对金融市场的风险敏感性，以执行气候保护议程。在第二步中，该项目分析了过渡风险的治理模式。它侧重于监管举措，力求通过在公司报告做法中加强与气候有关的财务信息，使过渡风险可衡量，从而可管理。因此，该项目寻求确定一种新的金融风险治理形式，试图通过解决金融市场的信息基础设施来改变经济预期。该项目旨在突出在金融领域实施气候保护议程的机会、限制和矛盾。特别是，它审查了将气候相关指标转换为金融信息是否存在损害环境问题的风险。出于气候保护的目的而将金融市场政治化可能会适得其反，如果这有助于气候政治的金融化。该项目将实证分析与理论思考相结合，批判性地阐明了金融风险和气候风险之间的纠葛，从而为当代社会的分析做出了重大贡献。学者们普遍认为，金融风险和气候风险是“世界风险社会”(Beck)的关键要素。