Department of Management Science and Engineering, School of Business, Qingdao University, Qingdao, Shandong Province, 266000, People's Republic of China.
Excelia Business School, La Rochelle, France.
J Environ Manage. 2021 Oct 15;296:113156. doi: 10.1016/j.jenvman.2021.113156. Epub 2021 Jul 2.
The development of a green financial intermediation channel is imperative to achieve zero-carbon economies. In this study, we assess the impact of carbon-neutral lending on the credit risk in the Eurozone. We employ quarterly data for a sample of 344 lending institutions of 19 member states spanning over ten years from 2011 to 2020. Using two specific credit risk measures, the findings show that the exposure to carbon-neutral lending is negatively related to the default risk. The results remain consistent for the various size sorts, depicting that regardless of the bank size, the impact of green financing on the credit risk is the same. We attribute the credit risk reduction to the lower volatility of the borrowers' earnings and cash flows emanating from their sustainable business model. As a consequence of lower credit risk, financial institutions can benefit from lower loan loss provisions and economic capital requirements. This incentive is vital to increase the carbon neutral credit and contribute towards pro-environmental goals.
发展绿色金融中介渠道对于实现零碳经济至关重要。本研究评估了碳中和贷款对欧元区信贷风险的影响。我们使用了 2011 年至 2020 年十年期间来自 19 个成员国的 344 家贷款机构的季度数据。使用两种特定的信用风险衡量标准，研究结果表明，对碳中和贷款的敞口与违约风险呈负相关。对于各种规模的分类，结果都是一致的，这表明无论银行规模大小，绿色融资对信贷风险的影响是相同的。我们将信用风险的降低归因于借款人可持续商业模式带来的收益和现金流波动性降低。由于信用风险降低，金融机构可以从较低的贷款损失准备和经济资本要求中受益。这种激励对于增加碳中和信贷和实现有利于环境的目标至关重要。
