Climate change financial risks: Implications for asset pricing and interest rates

Abstract

In addition to tail macroeconomic events (e.g. wars, financial crises and pandemics), climate change poses a threat to financial stability — with extreme climatic events increasing in frequency and intensity and policy risks putting pressure on asset valuations. We study the effect of a changing climate on asset prices and interest rates through the lens of a dynamic CAPM with rare disasters, time-varying risk and recursive preferences. In our model, a changing climate makes tail events more frequent and less predictable, increasing the premium of climate risk; interestingly, this change may not be fully reflected in the overall market risk premium that includes both components of risk: macroeconomic and environmental. Our results also support the hypothesis of a declining real rate of interest as the planet warms, while the increasing risk of climate policy reduces the participation of brown assets in the market portfolio.