The pricing of climate transition risk in Europe's equity market

We assess whether climate transition risk is priced in Europe's equity market by analysing relative equity returns of high versus low CO2-emitting firms. We use a panel data set covering firm-specific carbon emissions of 1,555 European companies over the period 2005-2019. We add to the existing literature by addressing problems in carbon data and by using various econometric methods ranging from panel data analysis to the SCM. Fama-French style panel regressions at both the individual firm level as well as portfolio level suggest that carbon intensity is negatively related to stock returns. Treatment effect models, however, provide some evidence for increased pricing of climate transition risk after the Paris Agreement.