Abstract. Climate technologies are central to addressing rising climate risks, yet existing research has largely emphasized policy as the primary driver of innovation. We examine whether climate vulnerability itself shapes innovation incentives as an additional channel alongside policy. Using patent data for mitigation and adaptation technologies in 77 countries from 1995-2021, we exploit within-country variation in vulnerability while controlling for policy and distinguishing key margins of heterogeneity, including between domestic invention and international technology diffusion. Climate vulnerability does not generate a uniform response. High-income economies capable of influencing global emissions shift innovation towards mitigation. Middleincome countries face constraints that limit access to foreign adaptation technologies precisely when adaptation needs are greatest, and the increase in domestic innovation-often reflecting the context-specific nature of adaptation technologies-is not sufficient to offset this decline. Falsification tests rule out competing mechanisms and provide evidence of an independent association between climate vulnerability and innovation, pointing to a previously underexplored channel shaping technological change.

Abstract. This paper examines whether mandatory Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) disclosure policies affect emissions in global value chains by incentivizing foreign suppliers to align with the environmental priorities of regulated buyers. I construct an industry-level measure of exposure to the European Union’s Non-Financial Reporting Directive (NFRD) for non-EU exporters and study its effects in an event-study framework. Greater exposure induces improvements in ESG reporting among high-income non-EU countries, accompanied by a temporary decline in ESG performance scores, suggesting greater transparency rather than cleaner production. More exposed industries also reduce emissions embodied in exports to the EU through a scale effect, driven by a contraction in intermediate exports rather than a decline in emissions intensity. I find no evidence that trade or emissions are redirected toward the rest of the world.

Abstract. This project examines whether the European Union’s Carbon Border Adjustment Mechanism (CBAM) can induce directed technical change among foreign producers rather than primarily reallocate trade. CBAM can be interpreted as a destination-specific emissions tax whose effective incidence depends on firms’ technology choices. I test this proposition empirically by examining whether firms or sectors more exposed to CBAM exhibit greater green patenting and cleaner production outcomes following its introduction. The empirical analysis is designed to distinguish genuine technological upgrading from alternative adjustment margins, including trade diversion and changes in output composition. I then develop a heterogeneous-firm trade model to rationalize the observed responses and to characterize the conditions under which a carbon border policy induces firm-level upgrading abroad. The framework highlights how innovation incentives depend on EU market access, initial emissions intensity, domestic carbon pricing, and the fixed costs of adopting cleaner technologies.