Stranded Assets: A Climate Risk Challenge (Summary)
Date issued
Sep 2016
Over the last few years, the topic of "stranded assets" resulting from environment-related risk factors has loomed larger. These factors include the effects of physical climate change as well as societal and regulatory responses to climate change. Despite the increasing prominence of these stranded assets as a topic of significant interest to academics, governments, financial institutions, and corporations, there has been little work specifically looking at this issue in Latin America and the Caribbean (LAC). This is a significant omission, given the region's exposure to environment-related risk factors, the presence of extensive fossil fuel resources that may become "unburnable" given carbon budget constraints, and the particular challenges and opportunities facing lower-income and emerging economies in LAC.This report includes an extensive literature review, reviews of case studies, in-depth interviews, extensive informal consultation, and a survey instrument to identify gaps in the stranded asset literature. The report builds on work undertaken in 2015 by the Inter-American Development Bank (IDB) on the issue of stranded assets. It aims to provide a deeper understanding of the issue and the existing literature about it, as well as highlight opportunities for future work, especially in LAC.