Stranded assets from climate change and its response strategies

Abstract Stranded assets, as a significant risk outcome of climate change and the low-carbon transition, may severely affect socioeconomic development and financial system stability; accordingly, related research has emerged as an important academic frontier in economics, finance, and political science. This paper systematically reviews the existing literature on stranded assets, presenting four core findings. First, the notion of stranded assets has matured from a narrow focus on ‘impaired assets’ to a comprehensive framework encompassing stranded resources, stranded capital, and stranded paper, driven by factors including unburnable carbon constraints, transition-risk policies, physical climate damages, and environmental liability attribution. Second, scale assessments typically combine top–down scenario design under stringent carbon budgets with bottom–up model construction. Third, stranded assets inflict significant financial shocks on fossil fuel upstream and downstream firms and transmit risk to the broader financial system via institutional investor exposures and systemic vulnerabilities; uneven regional risk distribution and intergenerational and international equity concerns may further trigger political risks. Finally, mitigation strategies involve portfolio optimization, accelerated renewable energy deployment, enhanced climate risk disclosure, and macroprudential policy tools. Future research should deepen the comprehensive quantification of multiple asset types, conduct micro-level empirical analyses, implement short-term dynamic monitoring, and develop equitable distribution mechanisms to support precise risk management and effective low-carbon transition decision-making.