Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Comment
  • Published:

Financial herding must be checked to avert climate crashes

Energy firms struggle to incorporate climate risks in their planning and public disclosures. This lack of information is increasing the chances that herd behaviour in finance could potentially lead to sudden disruptions in energy supply and exacerbate consequences of climate-related extreme events.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Fig. 1: Market capitalization of US shale companies.

References

  1. Hirshleifer, D. & Teoh, S. Eur. Financial Manag. 9, 25–66 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  2. El-Gamal, M. & Jaffe, A. M. Oil, Dollars, Debt and Crises: The Global Curse of Black Gold (Cambridge Univ. Press, 2010).

  3. Clayton, B. C. Market Madness: A Century of Oil panics, Crises, and Crashes (Oxford Univ. Press, 2015)

  4. Griffin, P. & Lont, D. J. Contemp. Account. Econ. 14, 179–196 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  5. Griffin, P. A. & Jaffe, A. M. U.S. Climate Risk and Financial Markets, Climate Risk to the Energy System (Council on Foreign Relations, 2019).

  6. Hirshleifer, D. & Teoh, S. Eur. Financial Manag. 9, 25–66 (2003).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  7. Griffin, P. A. & Jaffe, A. M. J. Energy Nat. Resour. Law. 36, 381–410 (2018).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  8. Kapadia, R. Central banks want to tackle climate change. Here’s what they are saying. Barron’s https://www.barrons.com/articles/climate-change-global-warming-financial-risk-central-banks-51571323787 (2019).

  9. Blunt, K. Smith, R. PG&E’s big blackout is only the beginning. Wall Street Journal (12 October 2019).

  10. Gregory, M. Millions of Californians lost power because PG&E refused to spend money to fix its problems. VICE https://www.vice.com/en_us/article/a35y38/millions-of-californians-lost-power-because-pgande-refused-to-spend-money-to-fix-its-problems (2019).

  11. Gold, R. & Blunt K. PG&E’s radical plan to prevent wildfires: shut down power grid. Wall Street Journal (27 April 2019).

  12. Persons, J. C. & Warther, V. A. Rev. Financ. Stud. 10, 939–967 (1997).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. Zeira, J. J. Monet. Econ. 43, 237–257 (1999).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. Azar A. Reserve Base Lending and The Outlook for Shale Oil and Gas Finance (Columbia Center on Global Energy Policy, 2017).

  15. Gevorkyan, A. & Semmler, W. Econ. Model. 54, 244–259 (2016).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  16. Markets Stocks. Bloomberg https://www.bloomberg.com/markets/stocks (2019).

  17. Rennison, J. High-yield bond investors beware: rising tides do not lift all boats. Financial Times (23 July 2019); https://www.ft.com/content/63e7af0c-ac84-11e9-8030-530adfa879c2

  18. Adams-Heard, R. Billionaires circle distressed assets in U.S. oil and gas patch. Bloomberg (14 November 2019); https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-11-14/billionaires-circle-distressed-assets-in-u-s-oil-and-gas-patch

  19. Fehrenbacher, K. A Biofuel Dream Gone Bad. Fortune https://fortune.com/longform/kior-vinod-khosla-clean-tech/ (2015).

  20. Konrad, T. The YieldCO boom and bust: the consequences of greed and a return to normalcy. Greentech Media https://www.greentechmedia.com/articles/read/the-yieldco-boom-and-bust-the-consequences-of-greed#gs.0livkm (2016).

  21. Coats, C. Market Cap of U. S. Coal Companies Continues to Fall. Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis https://ieefa.org/market-cap-u-s-coal-companies-continues-fall/ (2016).

  22. Quiggin J. Adani Beware: coal is on the road to becoming completely uninsurable. The Conversation (2019).

  23. Kearney, L. PES up against clock to sell Philadelphia Refinery in cash crunch. Reuters (16 August 2019).

  24. Smith, G. Exxon’s big oil sands write-off could help it dodge SEC troubles. Fortune https://fortune.com/2017/02/23/exxon-mobil-oil-sands-sec/ (2017).

  25. Gilblom, K. BP’s CEO says he’s sell oil projects to meet Paris climate accord goals. Fortune https://fortune.com/2019/09/12/bp-ceo-sell-oil-projects-paris-climate/ (2019).

  26. Bousso, R. Big oil undermines UN climate goals with $50 billion in new projects: report. Reuters https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-oil/big-oil-undermines-un-climate-goals-with-50-billion-of-new-projects-report-idUSKCN1VQ2WC (2019).

  27. D’Erasmo, P. Are Higher Capital Requirements Worth It (Federal Reserve Bank of Philadelphia, 2018).

  28. Flavelle, C. Moody’s buys climate data firm, signaling new scrutiny of climate risks. New York Times (24 July 2019); https://www.nytimes.com/2019/07/24/climate/moodys-ratings-climate-change-data.html

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Amy Myers Jaffe.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Check for updates. Verify currency and authenticity via CrossMark

Cite this article

Jaffe, A.M. Financial herding must be checked to avert climate crashes. Nat Energy 5, 101–103 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0551-7

Download citation

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/s41560-020-0551-7

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing