Financial Impact of Climate Risk and Green Finance: A Review of Meta-Analyses, Reviews, and Theory

The growing interest in sustainability has generated a vast academic literature on the intersection of climate change, green finance, and financial markets. However, heterogeneity in methodologies and results often makes it difficult to draw unified conclusions. This paper presents a review of meta-analyses and systematic literature reviews to synthesize the current state of knowledge. By analyzing a corpus of 22 reviews, we assess the consensus on three key areas: 1) the impact of climate risk (physical and transition) on asset valuation, 2) the existence and magnitude of a green financing premium (the "greenium"), and 3) the effects of green finance practices on corporate and banking profitability. Our findings indicate an emerging consensus on the pricing of physical climate risk in the real estate market and a modest but persistent negative premium for green bonds. However, the impact of sustainable finance on financial profitability remains ambiguous and highly dependent on the methodological context. This synthesis consolidates quantitative findings, evaluates prevailing methodologies, identifies research gaps, and proposes an integration theory with an agenda for future research, highlighting the need for greater standardization in metrics and analytical approaches to strengthen the robustness of empirical conclusions.