Selected from a highly competitive pool of proposals, Borui Qiu’s project distinguished itself through its strong alignment with the 2025 grant theme — “listed assets, sustainability consensus, and real world transition.” The selection committee highlighted both the scientific ambition of the proposal and its relevance to one of the core challenges of net zero investing: identifying firms that will genuinely decarbonize.
In particular, the project was recognized for:
- A genuinely innovative approach, transforming ESG data disagreement into a predictive signal using ValueCo’s contributor level data — a unique and high value feature of the research
- A strong and coherent methodological foundation, combining theoretical modeling, panel regressions, LASSO, machine learning, and event study techniques
- Clear potential for real world impact, by improving investors’ ability to distinguish genuine transition leaders from greenwashing risks
- Strong academic anchoring and supervision, reinforcing the credibility and feasibility of the project
Beyond its academic contribution, the research offers a practical roadmap for investors, helping better align climate ambition with measurable decarbonization outcomes in listed equity portfolios.
Mirova Research Center looks forward to supporting this research through access to data, engagement with practitioners, and dissemination to both academic and professional audiences.
Borui’s proposal combines methodological rigor with a truly innovative use of ValueCo’s data, making it one of the most relevant and highimpact research projects we received this year.
Manuel Coeslier
Head of MRC
Borui’s project stands out thanks to the clarity of its strategy and the focus on credible market mechanisms. It is exciting to see market consensus data used to move the debate from ESG ratings and commitments to economic transition.
Mathieu Joubrel
Co-Founder Valueco
Learn more about Borui’s project
What is your project about ?
Our project tries to find where portfolio decarbonization truly comes from by developing a simple two-lever framework that separates (i) investment-universe selection from (ii) forecasting skill and is calibrated using a global firm-level panel on emissions, financial characteristics, and climate commitments. Early results point to a clear ordering: improving forecasts can help, but the composition of the investment universe appears to be the dominant lever. In our preliminary analyses, firms with approved Science-Based Targets exhibit materially stronger transition dynamics, and our initial causal estimates suggest economically meaningful reductions in intensity.
What makes your approach new or different from existing work ?
The novelty of the approach lies in integrating theory, prediction, and causal inference into a coherent, investor-facing design. We quantify the relative contribution of universe construction versus forecasting skill, test a broad set of candidate drivers, and then focus on one credible mechanism. The aim is to provide a practical roadmap that helps investors move from climate ambition to measurable decarbonization outcomes, reducing the risk of greenwashing in net-zero portfolio investing.
How will the MRC–ValueCo Grant support your research practically ?
First, it supports the integration of ValueCo contributor-level information, which is central to constructing richer firm-year indicators and strengthening the empirical validation of the framework. It also creates structured opportunities to engage with practitioners and supports broader dissemination to both academic and professional audiences, helping us refine the draft through external feedback.