Guest editorial: Sustainable finance

Citation

Choudhury, T. and Kinateder, H. (2024), "Guest editorial: Sustainable finance", Studies in Economics and Finance, Vol. 41 No. 3, pp. 453-455. https://doi.org/10.1108/SEF-06-2024-693

This special issue of Studies in Economics and Finance focuses on the theoretical and practical elements of Sustainable Finance and their implications on financial markets and political science. The ultimate objective of Sustainable Finance is to enhance economic and financial performance for consumers, businesses and society while positively influencing the environment and society. In this regard, the environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations have been a critical concern for the financial industry in the current world while making investment and financing decisions, especially in the vision of COP 21 (Batten et al., 2018, Cantele and Zardini, 2018, Drempetic et al., 2020, Rubbaniy et al., 2022). For example, as part of the environmental considerations, it is essential to protect biodiversity, reduce pollution, promote a circular economy and preserve the climate by boosting renewable energy sources (Calvet et al., 2022, Javadi and Masum, 2021, Ramezani et al., 2022). Adopting these sustainable practices helps businesses succeed in day-to-day operations (Kinateder et al., 2021, Choudhury et al., 2021). Organisations play a crucial role by directing money towards environmentally friendly enterprises and technology to assist economic development for enduring circular economies (Saha et al., 2019). In this regard, Sustainable Finance has considerably changed to the point where it is now seen as a statutory need for sustained growth (Zhang et al., 2021). Although the idea of Sustainable Finance is gaining popularity around the world, some restrictions might prevent this shift. The most crucial one is changing company models to achieve sustainable development. Significant obstacles also exist in quantifying and managing ecological and social risk factors. Numerous financial organisations have decided to become carbon neutral. Finally, one of the critical obstacles to financing green growth is mobilising sustainable savings.

This special issue on Sustainable Finance includes papers from extensive sectors of financial sustainability. Among them, the climate impact of fossil energy stocks is examined by Kumari et al. (2023). Several others study green bonds [Yadav et al. (2023) and Piseddu and Vanhuyse (2023)] and green finance issues [Sajjad et al. (2024)]. Studies that address governance and COP topics include Kumari et al. (2023), Sajjad et al. (2024), Almaqtari et al. (2023), Peng and Smith III (2023) and Mardini and Elleuch Lahyani (2023). The relationship between green investments and energy commodities is analysed by Sharma et al. (2023) and Yadav et al. (2023). Another work studies the relationship between short-term firm performance and sustainable financial performance [Kayani et al. (2023)]. Finally, ESG-related issues are also an important major part of this special issue [Lange and Banadaki (2023), Peng and Smith III (2023), Niblock (2024) and Tanveer et al. (2024)].