Financial regulation for climate resilience: a comparative analysis across African economies

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Useful for scholars studying climate finance policy diffusion in developing economies, offering the first cross-country typology in Africa.

🏛政策担当者:Regulators in emerging economies can learn from the identified policy profiles and enforcement gaps to design more effective frameworks.

The increasing severity of climate-related risks underscores the urgent need for financial policies that enhance economic resilience, safeguard financial stability, and promote sustainable finance. In Africa, many economies are highly vulnerable to both physical climate shocks and transition risks, while also constrained by structural financial challenges and limited institutional capacity. This makes the governance of climate-related risks through financial policy particularly complex. Yet, existing research provides only limited systematic assessments of climate-related financial policies (CRFPs), their regulatory design, and implementation patterns. Against this backdrop, this study provides a structured, data-driven analysis of CRFPs across African countries from 2000 to 2025. Using clustering methods, distinct profiles of policy adoption are identified: from South Africa's diversified and mature framework to large groups of countries with minimal regulatory engagement. Central banks and financial regulators have led progress in disclosure and prudential oversight, while initiatives from stock exchanges and banking associations remain underutilized. Most policies are voluntary, limiting enforceability and impact. Temporal analysis reveals that international milestones, especially the 2015 Paris Agreement, acted as catalysts for policy adoption, although momentum has slowed in recent years due to capacity and coordination constraints. The resulting policy landscape is fragmented, with significant asymmetries in institutional engagement and regulatory ambition. Overall, this study provides the first cross-country typology of CRFP adoption and institutional engagement in Africa, contributing to the climate finance literature and informing regulatory and policy debates. The findings highlight the need for stronger enforcement mechanisms, broader use of sustainable finance instruments, greater regional harmonization, and targeted international support. Policy insights Most climate-related financial policies in Africa remain voluntary. Expanding access to green bonds and sustainability-linked loans, combined with supervisory tools such as climate stress testing, can mobilize private finance and strengthen resilience. Fossil fuel–dependent economies such as South Africa and Algeria face acute transition risks and require stronger frameworks to mitigate systemic financial vulnerabilities. Regional harmonization through standardized taxonomies and disclosure rules can reduce fragmentation, lower transaction costs, and improve investor confidence, particularly if supported by international partners.

• openaire https://doi.org/10.1080/14693062.2025.2598683first seen 2026-05-14 21:44:19