Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies

Climate Risk, Biodiversity, Geopolitical risk and Resilient Agri-Food Systems: Comparative Perspectives on Finance, Innovation, and Policy

•  Background

Climate change and biodiversity loss are increasingly recognized as interlinked global challenges with major implications for economic development, business activity, financial systems, and public policy. This framing is consistent with recent Taylor & Francis positioning, which emphasizes that climate change and biodiversity loss should be addressed as connected rather than separate crises, and it also fits the broadened scope of the Journal of Chinese Economic and Business Studies, which now welcomes multidisciplinary research on sustainability, climate change, finance, innovation, and development.

These challenges are especially visible in agri-food systems. Agriculture and food supply chains are highly exposed to physical climate risks, ecological degradation, biodiversity decline, resource scarcity, and transition pressures. At the same time, agri-food systems are central to food security, rural livelihoods, sustainable development, and long-run economic resilience. This makes them an especially important setting in which to study how finance, innovation, and policy can support adaptation and resilience under environmental stress.

Recent research shows that climate-related risk is now central to asset pricing, investor behavior, corporate responses, and financial intermediation. Hong, Karolyi, and Scheinkman (2020) frame climate finance as a major field within modern financial economics, while Krueger, Sautner, and Starks (2020) show that institutional investors view climate risk as financially material. Li, Shan, Tang, and Yao (2024) further demonstrate that firms face measurable physical and transition climate risks and respond to them in economically meaningful ways, while Pástor, Stambaugh, and Taylor (2023) show that carbon-transition risk is priced globally in equity markets.

Parallel work in economics shows that climate change has substantial effects on agriculture and adaptation. Burke and Emerick (2016) find that longer-run adaptation in U.S. agriculture mitigates less than half, and possibly none, of the large negative short-run effects of extreme heat on productivity. Aragón, Oteiza, and Rud (2021) show that subsistence farmers respond to extreme heat by adjusting cultivated area and crop mix, although those responses do not eliminate production losses.

Biodiversity-related finance remains a newer but rapidly developing frontier. Flammer, Giroux, and Heal (2025) develop the idea of biodiversity finance and show how private and blended capital can support biodiversity-related investment. On the economics side, Balboni, Burgess, and Olken (2025) show how tropical forest fires are rooted in economic incentives and policy failures, highlighting the links among environmental externalities, ecosystem degradation, and institutional design.

Taken together, this literature suggests a clear opportunity for a special issue that integrates these strands. While climate finance is now well established and climate-agriculture research is growing quickly, the intersection of climate risk, biodiversity, and resilient agri-food systems remains relatively under-integrated, especially from comparative perspectives spanning finance, innovation, and policy. This special issue aims to help fill that gap.

Recent geopolitical developments further underscore the urgency of this special issue. The ongoing conflict between the United States and Iran has introduced significant disruptions to global energy, fertilizer, and agricultural supply chains. In particular, tensions in the Strait of Hormuz have heightened input costs and uncertainty across agri-food systems worldwide. Disruptions to fertilizer markets are especially consequential, given the concentration of global nitrogen-based fertilizer production in the Middle East and its dependence on energy inputs.

At the same time, rising energy prices are transmitting broadly across the food system, increasing costs for transportation, processing, packaging, and refrigeration, with research suggesting that such shocks could add several percentage points to global food inflation over time. Higher input costs are already affecting farmers’ planting decisions and reducing agricultural output in some regions, further amplifying food price pressures. These developments highlight how geopolitical shocks can interact with climate risk and biodiversity challenges, reinforcing the importance of studying resilience, financial adaptation, and policy responses in agri-food systems.

•  Aim and Scope

This special issue seeks to advance research on how climate risk and biodiversity loss are reshaping agri-food systems across countries and regions, with particular attention to the roles of finance, innovation, and policy in building resilience.

The issue welcomes theoretical, empirical, comparative, and policy-oriented contributions from economics, finance, business, agricultural economics, and related disciplines. It is especially interested in work that bridges environmental risk with economic and business outcomes and that offers insights relevant to both scholars and policymakers. This interdisciplinary orientation fits well with JCEBS’s current scope, which explicitly spans economics, finance, business, sustainability, innovation, and global development challenges.

Submissions may focus on emerging, developing, or advanced economies, and comparative studies across countries and regions are particularly encouraged.