SOAS Economists Receive Financial Times 2025 Award for Academic Research with Impact

Senior Fellow Dr Moritz Kraemer and Professor Ulrich Volz awarded Financial Times Award for research on the impact of climate change and nature risk on sovereign credit ratings

Senior Fellow Dr Moritz Kraemer and Professor Ulrich Volz were awarded the Financial Times 2025 Award for Academic Research with Impact for research studies on the impact of climate change and nature risk on sovereign credit ratings, along with their research collaborators Professor Patrycja Klusak (Edinburgh Business School), Professor Matthew Agarwala (University of Sussex Business School), Dr Matt Burke (Sheffield University Management School), and Professor Kamiar Mohaddes (Cambridge Judge Business School).

A research paper on Rising Temperatures, Falling Ratings: The Effect of Climate Change on Sovereign Creditworthiness co-authored by Dr Moritz Kraemer models the impact of global warming on sovereign ratings while the study Nature Loss and Sovereign Credit Ratings co-authored by Dr Moritz Kraemer and Professor Ulrich Volz investigates the impact of loss of ecosystems on sovereign ratings, showing that developing countries are facing a significant risk of rating downgrades triggered in partial nature loss scenarios.

The SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance has a strong track record of high-impact research in this area. In 2018, SOAS researchers showed for the first time in a study funded by the United Nations that climate vulnerable developing countries had to pay a climate risk premium. In 2020, Professor Ulrich Volz led the first comprehensive study of the nexus between climate change and sovereign risk, followed by numerous further studies on the topic. 

The SOAS Centre for Sustainable Finance has also been working with the V20 Group of Finance Ministers on addressing climate risks in public finances and established the Resilience and Adaptation Mainstreaming Programme (RAMP) and the RAMP University Network to support ministries and finance and universities in climate vulnerable countries in building capacities to strengthen macroeconomic, fiscal and financial resilience against climate and environmental change.

Header image credit: Sortter via Unsplash.