Friday, June 20, 2025

Wildfires that keep us inside might drive the spread of infectious disease, per study of the U.S. West Coast wildfires of 2020

PLOS

Wildfires that keep us inside might drive the spread of infectious disease, per study of the U.S. West Coast wildfires of 2020, highlighting indirect health impacts of extreme weather events.

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Article URL: https://plos.io/4mXg1FC

Article Title: Disruption of outdoor activities caused by wildfire smoke shapes circulation of respiratory pathogens

Author Countries: Denmark, France, Italy, Spain, United States

Funding: Research reported in this publication was supported by the Fritz-Family fellowship program to SB and GP. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript. GP received her salary from the Fritz-Family fellowship program.

Journal

PLOS Climate

DOI

10.1371/journal.pclm.0000542

Article Title

Disruption of outdoor activities caused by wildfire smoke shapes circulation of respiratory pathogens

COI Statement

Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

New USC study links wildfire smoke exposure and heat stress to adverse birth outcomes

Keck School of Medicine of USC

Exposure to wildfire smoke and heat stress can negatively affect birth outcomes for women, especially in climate-vulnerable neighborhoods, according to a recent study led by USC postdoctoral researcher Roxana Khalili, PhD. The investigation, just published in Environmental Science & Technology, is one of the first to show that living in areas more susceptible to the harmful effects of climate-related exposures can significantly alter the effects of heat stress on adverse birth outcomes, even among women exposed to these conditions in the month before becoming pregnant.

“We already know that poor air quality is associated with adverse health outcomes and that pregnant women and fetuses are especially vulnerable,” said Khalili, a researcher in the department of population and public health sciences at the Keck School of Medicine of USC and lead author of the study. “Our knowledge about the specific effects of wildfire smoke during pregnancy has been limited. We know even less about the impact of these hazards right around or before conception.”

Khalili worked alongside Rima Habre, director of USC’s CLIMA Center to explore the associations between exposure to wildfire smoke and heat stress on infant health. They used data from the MADRES cohort (Maternal and Developmental Risks from Environmental and Social Stressors), an ongoing study of pregnant women in Los Angeles.

“Where you live makes a difference in your health,” said Khalili. “So does the timing of your exposure during or immediately before pregnancy. We wanted to better understand how these risks might differ for women who lived in neighborhoods that experience more climate related stressors and have fewer resources to deal with them.”

Measuring exposure

The research team examined 713 births among MADRES participants between 2016 and 2020. They used data from CalFIRE (California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection) to identify the location, size, and duration of every wildland fire in southern California during the study period. They used the NOAA hazard mapping system to calculate the smoke density from each fire and applied sophisticated modeling methods to calculate ground-level smoke concentrations, estimating how much particle pollution—tiny droplets of black carbon, soot, and burned vegetation—the women in the cohort were exposed to during these events based on their daily residential location histories.

Heat stress is another risk factor for pregnant women and fetuses, partly because pregnancy impedes a woman’s ability to regulate body temperature. To measure heat stress exposures in study participants, Khalili and her colleagues used meteorological data documenting the daily temperature, relative humidity, and wind speed. They also factored in a separate measurement that takes into account sun angle and cloud cover to gauge heat stress in direct sunlight, providing a better measure of how hot a given day feels when outdoors.

Next, the team pinpointed those LA neighborhoods that are most vulnerable to climate risks with mapping data from the California Urban Heat Island Index and the US Climate Vulnerability Index, two geospatial tools that analyze and map layers of data. These tools allow researchers to conduct deeper, more nuanced analyses that better assess the cumulative impacts of factors ranging from excessive heat and wildfire smoke to socioeconomic conditions.

Where there’s smoke…

The researchers found that greater exposure to wildfire smoke and excessive heat during the month before conception and the first trimester of pregnancy was associated with greater odds of having a small-for-gestational-age (SGA) baby. An infant is considered SGA if their birth weight is below the 10th percentile of their expected weight based on their gestational age. SGA places an infant at greater risk of health problems, from immediate complications at birth such as low oxygen levels to long-term challenges, including potential metabolic, cognitive and neurodevelopmental impairments. The team also found an association between pregnant women exposed to moderate smoke-density days in the first trimester and having a low-birth-weight baby, or an infant weighing less than five pounds, eight ounces. Like SGA, low birth weight is linked to an array of potential health problems, both short and long term.

“Overall, we found consistent associations between increased exposure to wildfire smoke and heat stress during preconception and the first trimester with the odds of having an SGA infant,” Khalili said.

The study also suggested that living in a climate-vulnerable neighborhood could increase the odds of an SGA birth, particularly for women exposed to heat stress during preconception. For women living in the most climate-vulnerable neighborhoods, the study showed the effect of heat stress during preconception on the likelihood of an SGA birth almost doubled.

Khalili and her colleagues also found that Fenton Z-scores, which measure how much an infant’s size deviates from the average for their age, significantly decreased with more days of wildfires experienced during pregnancy. These findings are particularly relevant given the longer-lasting fire events that Los Angeles experienced in January 2025 and that many cities across the US are currently facing.

“Understanding what’s happening to women during wildfires and excessively hot days could help us identify protective measures, develop guidance, and plan interventions,” said Khalili.

Given how frequent and long California’s wildfire seasons are expected to become, such interventions are urgently needed. But these need to go beyond simple measures an individual can take – like staying indoors, running air filters or air conditioners – to truly understanding and addressing what makes a community more resilient to these impacts.

Habre, who developed and oversaw the project, agrees that the study breaks new ground—and also that more holistic, actionable research is needed.

“As the recent Los Angeles fires have demonstrated, infrastructure, socioeconomic, and health vulnerabilities can combine with excessive climate and environmental factors to magnify health risks,” said Habre. “It is only by looking at the cumulative impacts of burdens communities are facing, now and into the future, that we can start to truly quantify health risks of climate hazards and target interventions to strengthen community resilience.”

About the study

The study’s additional authors include Yisi Liu, Yan Xu, Karl O’Sharkey, Tingyu Yang, Xinci Chen, Mario Vigil, Jill Johnston, Theresa M. Bastain, Carrie V. Breton, and Shohreh F. Farzan from the Department of Population and Public Health Sciences, Keck School of Medicine of USC; Nathan Pavlovic, Crystal McClure, and Fred Lurmann from Sonoma Technology, Inc., Petaluma, CA; Brendan Grubbs and Layla Al Marayati from the Department of Obstetrics and Gynecology, Keck School of Medicine of USC; Deborah Lerner andNathana Lurvey from Eisner Health; and Carmen J. Marsit from the Rollins School of Public Health, Emory University, Atlanta, GA.

This study was supported by the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, National Institutes of Health (NIH) [P50MD015705, P50ES026086, R01ES027409, P30ES007048], the Environmental Protection Agency [83615801], the National Heart Lung and Blood Institute (NIH) [P20HL176204] and the USC Provost Fund.

Journal

Environmental Science & Technology

DOI

10.1021/acs.est.4c10194

Method of Research

Meta-analysis

Article Title

Adverse Birth Outcomes Associated with Heat Stress and Wildfire Smoke Exposure During Preconception and Pregnancy

Article Publication Date

18-Jun-2025

Study finds hidden effects of wildfires on water systems

American Society for Microbiology

Highlights:

Wildfires disrupt microbial communities on land, but also alter aquatic systems when dissolved organic matter on burnt lands is carried into rivers, lakes or drinking water supplies.

In a new study, researchers found that the impact of wildfires on water systems could lead to nutrient imbalances, depleting oxygen levels or harmful algal blooms.

More complex treatment methods may be needed to ensure impacted water is safe for consumption or recreation.

Los Angeles, Calif.—Wildfires profoundly influence the unseen microbial world within our waters, directly impacting water quality and ecosystem health, according to a new study presented at ASM Microbe 2025, the annual meeting of the American Society for Microbiology.

“Understanding these critical, subtle changes is key to developing effective strategies for protecting our water resources in an era of increasing wildfire activity,” said presenting study author Courtney Gardner, Ph.D., assistant professor in the Maseeh Department of Civil, Architectural and Environmental Engineering at The University of Texas at Austin.

The researchers conducted the new study because the increasing frequency and intensity of wildfires pose a growing threat, not only to land, but also to vital water resources. “When rain falls on burnt landscapes, it carries dissolved organic matter, often referred to as ‘pyrogenic organic matter,’ into rivers, lakes and even drinking water supplies,” Gardner said. “A critical gap in our understanding was how this fire-derived material specifically impacts the aquatic microbial communities that are essential for maintaining water quality and cycling nutrients like nitrogen. Unbalanced microbial ecosystems can lead to compromised water health, affecting everything from aquatic life to the safety and treatability of our drinking water. Our goal was to uncover these subtle yet significant consequences.”

The new study involved setting up controlled experiments in the laboratory that mimicked what happens in natural water bodies. The scientists prepared water samples and then introduced different forms of dissolved organic matter: some from unburnt plant material, and some from plant material that had been combusted at low (250°C) or moderate (450°C) temperatures, reflecting different wildfire conditions. For 42 days, the researchers meticulously observed how the existing microbial communities in these water samples responded. This involved analyzing changes in their composition—which types of microbes were present and in what numbers—and examining the abundance of specific genes involved in the nitrogen cycle. By comparing these responses across the different water treatments, they could discern the direct effects of wildfire-derived organic matter.

They found the extent of burning dramatically influences the impact on aquatic microbes. Specifically, dissolved organic matter originating from fires at around 250°C led to a decreased diversity of microbial life and fostered less growth of microbial communities compared to organic matter from hotter burns. This suggests that the moderate heat processing creates more bioavailable forms of carbon that these microbes can readily utilize. Furthermore, the scientists observed significant decreases in the capacity for microbial nitrification, a crucial part of the nitrogen cycle that converts ammonia (a form of nitrogen that can be harmful in high concentrations) into nitrate (a form of nitrogen that plants can use).

“These findings carry important implications for how we manage water resources in wildfire-prone regions,” Gardner said. “The observed alterations in microbial communities and nitrogen-cycling processes can disrupt the natural balance of aquatic ecosystems. Such disruptions might lead to imbalances in nutrient availability, potentially fueling harmful algal blooms, depleting oxygen levels essential for aquatic life, or increasing the presence of undesirable compounds.” For communities, this means that post-wildfire water bodies may require more complex and potentially more expensive treatment methods to ensure water remains safe for consumption and recreational use. “Our research provides foundational knowledge to anticipate and address these challenges.”

The researchers said it's crucial to underscore that the new research highlights the interconnectedness of terrestrial and aquatic ecosystems. Wildfires have far-reaching effects on water that are often underestimated. “This study provides scientific evidence that reinforces the need for integrated land and water management strategies in regions vulnerable to wildfires,” Gardner said. “By focusing on fundamental scientific understanding, we can inform the development of more resilient communities and healthier environments in the face of escalating climate challenges.”

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The American Society for Microbiology is one of the largest professional societies dedicated to the life sciences and is composed of over 37,000 scientists and health practitioners. ASM's mission is to promote and advance the microbial sciences. 

ASM advances the microbial sciences through conferences, publications, certifications, educational opportunities and advocacy efforts. It enhances laboratory capacity around the globe through training and resources. It provides a network for scientists in academia, industry and clinical settings. Additionally, ASM promotes a deeper understanding of the microbial sciences to all audiences.

Climate change will likely make prescribed fires rarer – but increase their air quality impacts

North Carolina State University

Prescribed burns are important for land management and preventing wildfires, but a new study finds these managed fires are also significant contributors to air pollution in the southeastern United States – particularly in areas with large minority and low-income populations. The study also finds these air quality impacts could become more pronounced in the decades ahead as the effects of climate change become more pronounced.

The term “prescribed burns” refers to activities where sections of land are intentionally burned to clear undergrowth, reduce the risk of wildfire, manage land for wildlife, and so on.

“However, smoke from prescribed burns can also pose challenges to air quality,” says Fernando Garcia-Menendez, corresponding author of a paper on the work and an associate professor of civil, construction and environmental engineering at North Carolina State University. “And climate change may reduce the number of days when it is possible to conduct a prescribed burn, due to meteorological conditions such as high temperatures, drought or high winds.”

“Given these concerns and given how important prescribed burns are to land management in the southeastern United States, we wanted to get a better understanding of how these burns affect air quality in the Southeast now – and how they may affect air quality in the future,” says Megan Johnson, first author of the paper and a Ph.D. graduate from NC State.

For this study, researchers drew on air quality and emissions data from federal databases for the year 2018, including the number and location of prescribed burns in southeastern states, as well as data from previously published climate change projections. In addition, the researchers conducted a survey of 223 land managers in the Southeast to learn more about how meteorological conditions affect their decisions about prescribed burns and how they think climate change may affect their ability to conduct prescribed burns in the future.

The researchers then fed these data into a complex computational model that allowed them to both capture how prescribed burns affected air quality in 2018 and to project how the burns would likely affect air quality between 2055 and 2059.

“In order to understand how burns and climate may affect air quality in the future, first you need to establish how burns are affecting air quality now,” says Garcia-Menendez. “And we found that, across the Southeast, prescribed burns account for 5-10% of particulate matter (PM2.5) air pollution annually – which is significant.

“However, prescribed burns account for 15-25% of PM2.5 pollution in areas with the most prescribed burns – which are clustered in the region where Alabama, Florida and Georgia meet,” Garcia-Menendez says.

“The areas with the highest levels of smoke are home to around two million people, and these populations have higher fractions of people of color and people with low incomes relative to both the regional average and to the populations experiencing the least smoke,” says Johnson.

“Right now, these regions are not violating air quality standards for PM2.5. But we found that climate change may make it difficult for these areas to comply with those standards in the future.”

The researchers found that climate change may affect smoke (and air quality impacts) from prescribed burns in multiple ways. One major factor is that if there are fewer days when land managers can conduct prescribed burns, it is likely that more burns will be conducted on the viable days. Similarly, land managers are more likely to burn large areas of land at once, rather than burning several small areas over time.

“Whether it’s more burns, larger burns, or both, you’re putting more smoke into the air on a given day, which means a lot of PM2.5 being put into the air at once,” says Johnson.

What’s more, the viable days for conducting a prescribed burn are more likely to occur on days in spring and winter when the pollution effects of the burn can be more pronounced.

“To be clear, these would be days when the conditions for conducting a safe prescribed burn are met, but other atmospheric variables effectively increase air pollution stemming from the fire,” says Johnson.

“It’s important to note that, based on our survey, land managers in the Southeast already feel smoke management is a limiting factor for prescribed burns,” says Garcia-Menendez. “In other words, they’re not able to conduct these burns as often as they would like due to air quality concerns. Our study suggests that this challenge may only get worse.

“It’s also important to note that the calculations in our study were made using an assumption that the area of land treated with prescribed burns would be approximately the same in 2055-2059 as it was in 2018,” Garcia-Menendez says. “But we’re now seeing a big push to increase the number of prescribed burns, largely in an attempt to reduce the underbrush that contributes to uncontrolled wildfires. If we do see an increase in prescribed burns, that will increase the air quality impacts.

“That doesn’t mean those burns aren’t necessary, but it is something we would have to address in terms of both public health and public policy.”

The paper, “Impacts of Climate Change on Land Management and Wildland Fire Smoke in the Southeastern United States,” is published open access in the journal Environmental Research Letters.

This research drew on work supported by the National Science Foundation under grant 1751601 and the Joint Fire Science Program under Project 21-1-01-18. The research was also supported by a U.S. Geological Survey Science to Action Fellowship.

Journal

Environmental Research Letters

DOI

10.1088/1748-9326/addbf5

Method of Research

Computational simulation/modeling

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

Impacts of Climate Change on Land Management and Wildland Fire Smoke in the Southeastern United States

Article Publication Date

16-Jun-2025

Water erosion models in China: how to overcome current limitations under an empirical dominance?

Higher Education Press

image:
Image
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Credit: Wenli RAO1 , Qingfeng ZHANG1 , Fengbao ZHANG2 , Lifeng YUAN3,4 , Zicheng ZHENG5 , Longshan ZHAO6 , Xiangyang SONG7

Soil is the foundation of agriculture, and water erosion is one of the major ecological issues threatening land resources globally. In China, the phenomenon of water erosion is particularly prominent due to complex topography, diverse climates, and intense human activities—ranging from the myriad gullies of the Loess Plateau to the topsoil removal in the southern red soil regions. Water erosion not only leads to a decline in soil fertility but can also trigger secondary disasters such as debris flows and river siltation. To scientifically assess and predict water erosion risks, soil erosion models have become essential tools. These techniques, which simulate the water erosion process through mathematical formulas, help researchers and decision-makers quantify loss, identify high-risk areas, and provide a basis for soil and water conservation measures.

What has been the trajectory of water erosion model research in China? What are the most widely used models currently? What are the characteristics of research distribution across different regions? What shortcomings need urgent attention? Professor Qingfeng Zhang from Northwest A&F University, along with researchers from multiple institutions, systematically reviewed the research progress of water erosion models in China from 1982 to 2022 using a combination of bibliometric and statistical analysis methods, providing a panoramic perspective to answer these questions. Relevant study has been published in the journal Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering (DOI: 10.15302/J-FASE-2024580).

The researchers screened 786 relevant papers from the China National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI) and Web of Science (WoS) databases, covering various aspects such as model application, improvement, development, and qualitative assessment. The analysis revealed a distinct “empirical model dominance” characteristic in China’s water erosion model research—nearly 75% of applications are concentrated on three major empirical models: the Universal Soil Loss Equation (USLE), the Revised Universal Soil Loss Equation (RUSLE), and the Chinese Soil Loss Equation (CSLE). These models establish mathematical relationships by statistically analyzing a large amount of observational data, making them relatively simple to operate, especially suitable for water erosion assessments at regional or large watershed scales. Consequently, they are most widely applied in southeastern and central regions (such as Shaanxi, Yunnan, and Sichuan).

Notably, the focus of research has significantly shifted over time: before 2006, studies were more concerned with describing the characteristics of water erosion, such as loss patterns under different topographies or land uses; after 2006, the focus gradually shifted to analyzing influencing factors (such as rainfall, vegetation, and human activities) and the spatiotemporal evolution of water erosion processes. This transition reflects a deepening of model applications from “identifying the status quo” to “analyzing mechanisms”.

However, the research also reveals multiple challenges in the current application of water erosion models. First is the “verification gap”—many studies directly apply models to evaluate water erosion amounts or distributions but lack comparison with field observational data, raising concerns about the reliability of the results. Second is the “regional limitation”—empirical models are usually developed based on observational data from specific areas; directly applying them to other geographical environments (such as from the Loess Plateau to the southern red soil regions) may lead to errors due to parameter mismatches. Furthermore, research on physical process models (which simulate erosion processes based on hydrodynamic principles) is relatively weak; these models can more accurately describe sediment transport mechanisms, but they are complex in terms of parameters and data requirements, limiting their practical application. Additionally, the mechanistic studies on key processes of water erosion (such as rill development and sediment transport) are still insufficient, constraining model optimization.

To address these issues, the authors suggest: enhancing observations of soil erosion processes and improving the reliability of model validation through long-term, systematic accumulation of field data; establishing methods for data or mathematical formula conversion to account for differences in geographical environments; and deepening research on the mechanisms of erosion processes, particularly exploring the mechanisms of key links, to provide a more solid theoretical foundation for model optimization.

Journal

Frontiers of Agricultural Science and Engineering

DOI

10.15302/J-FASE-2024580

Method of Research

Experimental study

Subject of Research

Not applicable

Article Title

An overview of water erosion modeling in China: a bibliometric and statistical analysis

OECD countries diverge on energy, finance, and income: new study reveals convergence clubs and policy lessons

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Journal Center

Background and Motivation

As global efforts intensify toward sustainable economic growth and clean energy transition, the interplay between energy diversification, financial development, and per-capita income in advanced economies has gained critical importance. OECD countries, often seen as leaders in technology, finance, and environmental governance, present an ideal laboratory for examining whether these factors are converging or diverging in a globalised world. The longstanding theory of convergence suggests that lagging economies will catch up to wealthier peers, but do these patterns hold for energy and finance, especially amidst climate and technological shifts? China Finance Review International (CFRI) brings you a new article titled “Energy diversification, financial development and economic development: an examination of convergence in OECD countries”, which investigates these very questions using advanced econometric methods and panel data from 1997 to 2021.

Methodology and Scope

The study employs a combination of club convergence tests, Granger causality tests, and panel regressions to analyse the evolution and interrelationships of energy diversification, financial development, and per-capita income among 38 OECD countries over a 25-year period. By leveraging the Phillips and Sul log-t test, the authors identify whether all countries are converging to a single steady state or instead forming distinct “convergence clubs”—groups of countries with similar development paths. Granger causality and regression analyses are used to uncover the drivers and directionality of relationships between the three variables, with careful control for technological progress, capital formation, labour participation, trade, oil prices, and human development.

Key Findings and Contributions

No Overall Convergence, But Convergence Clubs Exist: The study finds no evidence of all OECD countries converging to the same levels of energy diversification, financial development, or per-capita income. Instead, distinct convergence clubs are identified for each factor, with countries within each club growing more similar to each other.
Bi-directional and Uni-directional Relationships: There is strong short-run bi-directional causality between all three variables. In the long run, financial development positively impacts both per-capita income and energy diversification, while energy diversification also supports financial development. A U-shaped effect of income on energy diversification is revealed, with a turning point at $67,112.8 per year.
Role of Technology: Technological progress is a significant driver of per-capita income growth and energy diversification among OECD countries.
Determinants of Convergence: Fixed capital, labour participation, trade, human development, and oil prices all play significant roles in shaping convergence within clubs.
Novelty: This is the first comprehensive study to test the convergence of energy diversification, financial development, and per-capita income in OECD countries simultaneously, advancing the empirical literature on sustainable growth and financial systems

Why It Matters

The research provides critical insights for countries seeking to accelerate their transition to cleaner energy, deepen financial development, and enhance economic prosperity. As climate change and energy security become central to the global agenda, understanding why certain nations cluster together and what drives progress is crucial for targeted, effective policymaking. The emergence of convergence clubs suggests that global “one-size-fits-all” solutions may be less effective than tailored approaches that account for country-specific trajectories, resources, and institutional strengths.

Practical Applications

For Researchers: Explore why countries form specific clusters and how technology diffusion impacts convergence. Apply advanced panel data techniques to study multi-dimensional convergence.
For Financial Institutions and Investors: Design financial products for countries at different development stages. Use convergence club analysis to improve cross-country risk assessment and sustainable investment strategies.
For Policymakers: Tailor policies to each country's level of energy and financial development. Promote technology sharing and international cooperation; strengthen support for green finance.
For Businesses and Corporations: Factor in club-based trends when making investment decisions in energy and finance. Align strategies with evolving energy and financial policies to capture early opportunities in renewables.

Discover high-quality academic insights in finance from this article published in China Finance Review International. Click the DOI below to read the full-text original! Open access for a limited time!

Journal

China Finance Review International

DOI

10.1108/CFRI-07-2024-0427

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

Energy diversification, financial development and economic development: an examination of convergence in OECD countries

Article Publication Date

15-Jun-2025

BRICS banks at the crossroads: ESG lending and tech investment drive stability and growth

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Journal Center

Background and Motivation

Amid mounting global concerns over sustainability, financial stability, and rapid technological transformation, banks in emerging markets face growing pressure to adapt. For the BRICS economies—Brazil, Russia, India, China, and South Africa—this pressure is especially acute, given their outsized role in the world economy and unique socio-economic challenges. As these nations strive for economic growth, they also confront environmental degradation, social inequality, and regulatory gaps, all of which intensify the urgency to embed Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) criteria and technological innovation into financial practices. China Finance Review International (CFRI) brings you a new article titled “ESG lending, technology investment and banking performance in BRICS: navigating sustainability and financial stability”, which examines how sustainable finance and digital transformation are reshaping the region’s banking sector by analysing their effects on bank risk and profitability.

Methodology and Scope

The study leverages quarterly panel data from commercial banks in BRICS countries between 2015 and 2023. Using fixed-effects regression models, the authors estimate how banks’ exposure to high-ESG firms and their borrowers’ technology-related capital expenditures impact two key metrics: return on risk-weighted assets (RoRWA) and non-performing loans (NPLs). To ensure robust findings, the analysis is further stratified by bank size, assessing whether institutional scale influences the efficacy of ESG and technology-driven lending strategies.

Key Findings and Contributions

Positive Impact of ESG Lending: Banks that extend credit to high-ESG firms demonstrate improved risk-adjusted returns and reduced default rates.
Technology Investments Matter: Lending to technologically advanced firms correlates with better bank performance and lower credit risk, especially in volatile periods.
Small Banks Benefit Most: The risk-mitigating effects of ESG and technology-focused lending are most pronounced in smaller banks, which often face greater resource constraints.
Empirical Evidence from Emerging Markets: The study bridges a critical gap in sustainable finance literature by providing rare empirical evidence from the diverse and rapidly changing BRICS context

Why It Matters

This research directly addresses the dual mandate facing BRICS banks: promoting sustainable economic growth while safeguarding financial system stability. As emerging markets drive a significant share of global growth, how their banks manage ESG and technological risks will shape not only local economies but also international financial flows and climate action. The study’s novel findings offer timely, actionable guidance for banks and policymakers as they navigate the intersection of sustainability, digitalisation, and risk management.

Practical Applications

For Researchers: The article opens avenues for further comparative studies between emerging and developed markets, as well as qualitative exploration of cultural and regulatory differences in ESG adoption.
For Investors: The findings highlight the financial benefits of allocating capital toward high-ESG and tech-oriented banks and borrowers in emerging markets, aligning profitability with sustainability.
For Policymakers and Regulators: Policy tools such as tax breaks, subsidies, and regulatory adjustments can accelerate sustainable finance and digital transformation. Establishing common ESG reporting and assessment standards will improve transparency, facilitate international investment, and strengthen the overall ecosystem. Support for digital infrastructure—including broadband and cybersecurity—enables widespread adoption of tech-driven banking models.
For Banks and Financial Institutions: Integrating ESG and technology factors into credit risk frameworks can boost lending efficiency and resilience. Specialised products for high-ESG and tech-driven firms can create new competitive advantages and align portfolios with global sustainability trends. Smaller banks, in particular, are encouraged to deepen their ESG and digital assessment capabilities to improve credit quality and profitability.

Journal

China Finance Review International

DOI

10.1108/CFRI-09-2024-0496

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

ESG lending, technology investment and banking performance in BRICS: navigating sustainability and financial stability

Article Publication Date

15-Jun-2025

Mapping financial - new energy risks in China via multilayer networks

Shanghai Jiao Tong University Journal Center

Global efficiency — image:
It can be seen that the global efficiency curves of the three layers are slightly different. More specifically, the RK layer shows the most obvious downward trend, while the RV layer has the slowest downward trend, and the RS layer falls between RK layer and RV layer. This phenomenon indicates that the interconnectedness between the variables based on the three indicators have different characteristics. Thus, it is necessary to construct a multilayer connectedness network by combining the RV, RS and RK to explore the interconnectedness between the financial sectors and the new energy companies of China. As shown by the dashed line in Figure 1, the key point of the global efficiency curves is around 0.1. In other words, when the threshold exceeds 0.1, the global efficiency of all layers will collapse. In view of this, 0.1 is the effective threshold selected in this paper.
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Credit: Zhifeng Dai and Haoyang Zhu (Changsha University of Science and Technology, China).

Background and Motivation

As China accelerates its transition toward a low-carbon economy, the new energy sector has become a strategic pillar, drawing increasing attention and capital from the financial system. With this capital influx comes heightened concern about systemic risk spillovers between financial institutions and new energy firms, particularly during periods of market stress. Traditional single-layer models fail to capture the complex, multi-dimensional risk interactions across sectors.

China Finance Review International (CFRI) presents the article titled "Multilayer Network Analysis for the Interconnectedness Between Financial Sectors and New Energy Companies in China", which investigates these relationships through a multilayer network framework using high-frequency data.

Methodology and Scope

The authors construct a multilayer connectedness network based on three realised indicators—realised volatility (RV), realised skewness (RS), and realised kurtosis (RK)—all derived from 5-minute intraday trading data covering 2012–2022. They apply the Diebold-Yilmaz (DY) connectedness framework, enhanced with a LASSO-VAR model, to 25 companies: 13 listed banks, 3 insurance firms, and 9 leading new energy firms ranked by market capitalisation.

System- and company-level indicators are computed to evaluate not only overall connectedness but also the direction and strength of risk spillovers within and across layers.

Key Findings and Contributions

Multidimensional Risk Capture: RV, RS, and RK layers provide complementary insights into risk contagion. Volatility captures persistent risk, while skewness and kurtosis reflect jump and tail risks, respectively.
Banks as Risk Hubs: On average, banks act as net transmitters of systemic risk, while insurance and new energy companies are net receivers.
Temporal Dynamics: Risk contagion is time-varying, intensifying notably during crises such as the 2015–16 Chinese stock market crash and the COVID-19 outbreak in 2020.
Layer-Specific Roles: Some institutions switch roles (e.g., from risk sender to receiver) depending on the risk type captured in different layers.
Structural Insight: The multilayer network shows that interconnectivity tends to cluster across layers, especially in turbulent times, making single-layer analysis insufficient for comprehensive risk assessment.

Why It Matters

The study offers a more granular and dynamic understanding of how systemic risk propagates between critical sectors in China. By integrating multiple layers of risk measurement, it provides a more robust framework for monitoring financial stability in an era of green transformation and increasing financialization of the energy market.

Practical Applications

For Investors: The multilayer network helps investors better understand systemic risks associated with financial institutions and new energy firms. Risk transmission patterns can guide dynamic portfolio adjustment under different market conditions.
For Managers (of financial and energy firms): Understanding time-varying interconnectedness can inform forward-looking strategies. Layer-specific risk exposure insights support better internal risk control mechanisms.
For Policymakers: The dominant role of banks as systemic risk hubs underlines the need for stronger supervision and regulatory preparedness. The model provides actionable insights into how financial shocks can impact strategic sectors like new energy, helping inform targeted intervention strategies.

Journal

China Finance Review International

DOI

10.1108/CFRI-05-2024-0247

Method of Research

News article

Article Title

Multilayer network analysis for the interconnectedness between financial sectors and new energy companies in China

Article Publication Date

15-Jun-2025

Machiavellianism boosts CEO pay, study finds

University of Florida

In an extensive study examining the relationship between personality traits and executive pay, CEOs who exhibit more Machiavellianism, characterized by motivation to achieve personal goals and 'win' social interactions, are more likely to have higher total pay and severance pay and to secure higher pay for those on their top management team.

Aaron Hill, Ph.D., an associate professor at the University of Florida Warrington College of Business, and his co-authors determined that CEO's who scored higher on Machiavellianism were more motivated and successful in their negotiations.

The team used a longitudinal sample of S&P 500 firms to compare compensation data with the executives' personality traits collected by expert clinical psychologists’ analyses of public video recordings.

“Broadly, we find that CEO Machiavellianism positively relates to their own pay, their severance pay and the pay of their C-Suite or top management team,” Hill said. “The latter effect – on top management team pay – we find then predicts CEO pay raises. Our findings suggest that in this way, CEOs higher in Machiavellianism may pay their top management team members more to set up their own pay raises.”

The team’s research highlights an underlying bias in how this trait can affect pay decisions. In response, those who set pay, such as boards of directors, should work on policies that reinforce the behaviors they want in their executives. They should also place leaders in a position to succeed and accentuate the positive aspects of their innate tendencies.

“We all have tendencies that present tradeoffs in terms of having some positive aspects and some negative aspects,” Hill said. “Hopefully, as managers, we can acknowledge those and work to accentuate the positives and limit the potential downsides – in effect, take advantage of the positives and work to mitigate the negatives.”

This research is published in the Journal of Applied Psychology.

Journal

Journal of Applied Psychology

DOI

10.1037/apl0001290

Method of Research

Data/statistical analysis

Subject of Research

People

Article Title

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Machiavellianism and Executive Pay