Green Capital Requirements
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Series
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Speaker(s)Martin Oehmke (London School of Economics, United Kingdom)
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FieldFinance
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LocationTinbergen Institute Amsterdam, room Shanghai
Amsterdam -
Date and time
September 18, 2024
12:45 - 14:00
Abstract
We study bank capital requirements as a tool to address financial risks and externalities caused by carbon emissions. Capital regulation can effectively address financial risks but doing so does not necessarily reduce emissions (e.g., higher capital requirements for carbon-intensive loans may crowd out clean lending). Reducing emissions via capital requirements may require sacrificing financial stability or may be altogether infeasible. Carbon taxes are not subject to these drawbacks. However, if the government cannot commit to future environmental policies, capital requirements can make higher carbon taxes credible by ensuring banks have sufficient capital to absorb losses from stranded asset risk. Joint paper with Marcus Opp.