Essec Business School

With Alain Naef

Congratulations to Alain Naef, assistant professor of economics at ESSEC Business School, who received the 2024 Banque de France Young Researchers' Prize in Green Finance at the Green Finance Research Advances conference on Thursday, December 12th, 2024! 

Dr. Naef received this award in recognition for his contributions to research in the field of green finance. His work looks at transition of fossil fuel companies, questions of sustainable finance and central banking. The 2024 award was jointly given to two researchers, also rewarding Prof Isis Durrmeyer from the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE).

He has published extensively in the field of green finance, focusing on fossil fuel companies and strategies to facilitate their transition towards sustainability. In a paper published in Ecological Economics, he demonstrated that over 78% of large oil and gas companies advocate for carbon taxes as a means to eliminate competition from the coal sector and shift responsibility onto consumers. In joint work with Camille Macaire, he explored how central banks can advance green finance, exemplified by the People’s Bank of China’s initiatives in 2018. Additionally, in an article with Truzaar Dordi, Sebastian Gehricke, and Olaf Weber, he analysed the ownership structures of fossil fuel companies, highlighting the critical roles of large asset owners and governments in driving the transition.

About Dr. Alain Naef 

Alain Naef is an economist focusing on climate finance, international macroeconomics and economic history. He obtained his PhD from the University of Cambridge followed by a postdoc at UC Berkeley. He has taught at Sciences Po, LSE, Warwick, Berkeley and Cambridge. At ESSEC, his teaching focuses on macroeconomics and environment economics. Previously, he was a Senior Economist at the Banque de France and a member of the G20 sustainable finance working group. He is also the co-founder of sustainable macro, a research network exploring sustainable fiscal policies. His current research interests revolve around fossil fuel companies and their financing.

About the Banque de France “Young Researchers in Green Finance" Prize

The Banque de France launched this prize in 2018 to recognize young researchers working in the green finance field. With this prize, they aim to show their support for research that will facilitate our transition to a low-carbon economy. They believe that the entirety of the finance world has a responsibility to be more sustainable. To that end, laureates receive up to 3,000 euros to support their work. 

The criteria are: 

• Working on green finance research projects

• PhD holders under the age of 40, or doctoral students who have not yet defended their thesis 

• Affiliation with a French university or academic institution