Presentation: Firms on the Road to Net Zero, by Ralph De Haas, Director of Research, EBRD (PDF)
In line with commitments under the Paris Agreement, many countries are aiming for net zero carbon emissions by 2050. This green transition will require massive corporate investments in cleaner technologies to reduce firms’ carbon footprint. Against this background, large companies like Apple, BP, and British Airways have recently committed to climate neutrality. In emerging markets, some firms have started to do the same. Examples include PKN Orlen in Poland and Tesco Hungary. Unfortunately, not all companies, especially smaller ones, are able or willing to invest in cleaner technologies. This talk will draw on a variety of firm-level data sources in Europe and Central Asia region to explore how financial and managerial constraints are holding back firms from making green investments and how this may thwart countries’ ambitions to become carbon neutral over the next decades.
Ralph De Haas is the Director of Research at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development. He holds a PhD in Economics from Utrecht University and previously worked as a Senior Economist in the Prudential Supervision Department and the Economic Policy and Research Department of the Dutch central bank. Ralph is also a part-time Associate Professor of Finance at Tilburg University; a CEPR Research Fellow; a Fellow at the European Banking Center (EBC); a Senior Fellow at LSE’s Institute of Global Affairs; and the recipient of the 2014 Willem F. Duisenberg Fellowship Prize.
Harry Huizinga is the Professor of Economics at the Tilburg School of Economics and Management. He is also a CEPR Research Fellow, and holds a PhD from Harvard University. His main fields of research are public economics and banking, with articles appearing in the Journal of Finance, the Journal of Financial Economics, the Journal of Monetary Economics, and the Journal of Public Economics. Previously, he held the position of Economic Adviser in the Directorate-General for Economic and Financial Affairs of the European Commission in the period of 2000-2003.
Richard Damania is the Chief Economist of the Sustainable Development Practice Group. He has held several positions in the World Bank including as Senior Economic Advisor in the Water Practice, Lead Economist in the Africa Region’s Sustainable Development Department, in the South Asia and Latin America and Caribbean Regions of the World Bank. His work has spanned across multiple sectors and has helped the World Bank become an acknowledged thought-leader on matters relating to environment, water and the economy. Prior to joining the World Bank he was Professor of Economics at the University of Adelaide.