Climate Risk Podcast

Many of the financial risks that will arise from the transition towards a net-zero economy will be determined by what climate-related policies are enacted, the speed with which policymakers act, and how the economy evolves in response to these policies. Given economics’ critical role in policymaking, the economist’s perspective on climate change provides insights into how these policy options might evolve, helping risk professionals to better identify and assess financial risks associated with the transition to net-zero. So, today’s episode will explore: How economics shapes climate policy, and how climate policymaking shapes the economy How well climate change is incorporated into economists’ thinking, models, and policymaking guidance How economics needs to evolve to fully address the risks from climate change Links from today’s discussion: Harvard University’s interdisciplinary approach to climate change: https://climatechange.environment.harvard.edu/home#section3  Keep Climate Policy Focused on The Social Cost of Carbon - Jim’s article on the ‘social cost of carbon’ vs. ‘cost-effectiveness’ approaches: https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/science.abi7813  The United States’ Renewable Fuel Standard Program: https://www.epa.gov/renewable-fuel-standard-program/overview-renewable-fuel-standard  For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub: https://climate.garp.org/  If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com  ------------------ Jim Stock, Professor of Political Economy and Vice Provost for Climate and Sustainability at Harvard University Jim’s current research includes energy and environmental economics with a focus on fuels and on US climate change policy. From 2013-2014, Jim served as a Member of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, where his portfolio included macroeconomics and energy, and environmental policy. From 2007-2009, he was Chair of the Harvard Economics Department, and he holds a Doctorate in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley.

Against a backdrop of increasing societal awareness and improved scientific understanding of climate change, many stakeholders regard the law as an important tool to hold firms and governments to account and drive forward the green agenda. Since the Paris Agreement in 2015, there has been a significant rise in the number of climate-related litigation cases, increasing the legal jeopardy and reputational risk for firms navigating the transition. That’s why this episode will: Provide a framework for understanding the emerging legal landscape around climate change Address what factors are driving this increase in litigation Explore the risk implications for firms navigating the transition Links from today’s discussion: Clyde & Co’s Climate Resilience Hub – Providing insights on the key current and future high-impact risks and liabilities challenging the resilience of organisations across sectors: https://www.clydeco.com/en/insights/resilience/climate-change The Geneva Association’s Climate Litigation Report: https://www.genevaassociation.org/research-topics/climate-change-and-emerging-environmental-topics/climate-litigation  The Shell CEO podcast interview (Outrage + Optimism): https://podcasts.apple.com/no/podcast/climate-fossil-fuels-and-the-future-of-shell/id1459416461?i=1000527676936 For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub: https://climate.garp.org/  If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com ------------------ Nigel Brook – Partner at Clyde & Co Nigel has been a partner at Clyde & Co since 1985 and heads the firm's reinsurance team. An international insurance and reinsurance disputes specialist with over 30 years' experience, Nigel is considered by many to be one of the top insurance lawyers worldwide. He leads Clyde & Co’s global campaign on Resilience and Climate Change Risk, building a body of know-how and raising awareness of climate-related legal duties and potential liabilities. He is a member of the Law, Regulation and Resilience Policies Working Group of the Insurance Development Forum – a public/private partnership seeking to optimise and extend the use of insurance and the industry's risk management capabilities to protect those most vulnerable to disasters. He co-authored the firm's 2018 Reports on Parametric Insurance and Inclusive Insurance – exploring the role of innovative risk transfer in closing the global protection gap – and has authored and edited Clyde & Co's 2018/19 series of reports on the rising tide of Climate Change liability and duties of care.

Today’s episode is all about how to navigate the increasingly complex landscape of climate disclosures, sustainability reporting frameworks and green taxonomies that have emerged over the last few years. This episode will address: What role disclosures should be playing in driving the transition to a low carbon economy Recent efforts to move beyond a narrow focus on climate to incorporate factors such as nature, biodiversity and water into disclosure frameworks The attributes that risk and finance professionals will need to ensure that they understand the risks and are supporting the transition, not greenwashing Links from today’s discussion: Learn more about CDSB: https://www.cdsb.net/ TCFD Knowledge Hub: https://www.tcfdhub.org/  Free Online Climate Risk/Reporting Courses: https://learn.tcfdhub.org/  For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub: https://climate.garp.org/  If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com ------------------ Mardi McBrien - Managing Director at the Climate Disclosure Standards Board (CDSB) For over a decade Mardi has played a leading role in driving the integration of climate and environmental information into corporate reporting with the same rigour as financial information, globally. Prior to CDSB, Mardi has enjoyed an eclectic career which has seen her lead flagship environmental campaigns for WWF to working on the United Kingdom’s carbon market policy for their Department for Energy and Climate Change and public private partnership management for the UK timber supply chain, amongst other challenging roles. Mardi is a member of the UK Financial Reporting Council Advisory Panel, a fellow of the RSA, and has participated in a number of industry related advisory boards and committees as part of her role at CDSB, including the IFRS Foundation Technical Readiness Working Group for the new International Sustainability Standards Board, GRI Stakeholder Council, Corporate Reporting Dialogue, Australian Sustainable Finance Initiative (ASFI) and the IIRC Council. Originally qualifying as a forester and environmental scientist (Melbourne University) and agricultural economist (SOAS), she volunteered as a trustee of one of the oldest environmental NGO’s in the world, the International Tree Foundation, and she is a founding Board member of WOCAN – Women Organising for Change in Agriculture and Natural Resource Management.

Over the past few years, we have seen an increasing number of companies take it upon themselves to engage with the issues climate change and sustainability on a voluntary basis - with firms’ motivations ranging from an interest in the long-term sustainability of their company’s activities, to a sense a moral duty to people and planet. There is a lot to be learnt from the organisations taking proactive steps to embed issues of sustainability at the heart of what they do. That’s why in today’s episode, we will be looking at this type of voluntary action, with a specific focus on the B Corp movement and their efforts to certify companies taking steps to think long term across all stakeholders. Hearing about firms that have made the transition to becoming a certified B Corp gives us a great insight into what it means for an organisation to truly walk the talk when it comes to something like climate change.   Links from today’s discussion: B Corporation website: www.bcorporation.uk  Better Business Act: www.betterbusinssact.org  Boardroom 2030: www.boardroom2030.org    For \more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub: https://climate.garp.org/ If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com   ------------------   Charmian Love - Co-Founder at B Lab UK and Social Entrepreneur in Residence at Said Business School, Oxford   Charmian is Co-Founder and Activist in Residence at B Lab UK, where she supports the growth of B Corps across the UK (and beyond) and is Co-Chair of B Lab’s Global Climate Taskforce. Charmian is committed to helping accelerate the transition to a more regenerative, circular and inclusive economy. In her role as Social Entrepreneur in Residence at the Skoll Centre for Social Entrepreneurship at Oxford University’s Saïd Business School, Charmian is guiding the development of the Regenerative and Circular Economy Lab and designed and teaches a popular MBA course on this subject. Charmian also holds the role of Co-Director for the newly launched Oxford Climate Emergency Programme, has co-taught an Executive MBA course on Systempreneurship: Innovating for Impact, contributed to the core MBA class ‘Capitalism in Debate’ and is a regular tutor in the GOTO programme focused on equipping students with skills and tools to engage in system change. She is a member of the Sustainability Advisory Council at the ICAEW (because she truly believes that accountants will save the world), a member of the ‘Regenerative Business’ working group at the Institute of Directors (IoD), Co-Chair of the BAC’s NetZero Working Group and an Advisory Committee member for GARP’s (Global Association of Risk Professionals) Sustainability and Climate Risk Certificate. She held the role of chair of B Lab UK for 5 years, was a founding trustee to the Future Fit Foundation and was on the UK board of the B Team until 2019.

In today’s episode we will be returning to the topic of climate disclosures, looking specifically at the advancements in TCFD adoption across the banking sector. In 2019 we recorded a podcast that discussed the early adoption of the TCFD across the banking sector. Now, just 2 years on, we are starting to see a number of countries laying out plans for mandatory TCFD reporting. Expectations around the quality of climate disclosures are rising and we are seeing the TCFD transitioning to become a part of business as usual reporting. That is why today’s discussion will be focused on learning from those already reporting to better understand what firms are doing well, as well as where improvements can be made. This episode will directly address: what banks are doing well and what needs to be improved; whether or not general-purpose lending needs to become more closely tied with emissions or other green indicators; and why TCFD reporting remains fragmented and what to do about it   In memory of Roger Gifford We wanted to take this opportunity to pay tribute to Sir Roger Gifford who sadly passed away in May. Among his many accomplishments, he was a respected banker, former Lord Mayor of the City of London and Chair of the Green Finance Institute, playing a leading role in driving the green finance agenda in the UK.  As someone who was always keen to support work promoting sustainable finance, he has been a good friend to GARP and was happy to write the Forewords to both BCS Consulting reports on TCFD discussed in this episode. We dedicate this episode of the podcast to his memory.    Links from today’s discussion: Our previous podcast with Hector: https://garpcast.libsyn.com/tcfd-global-progress-for-the-banking-sector BCS’ TCFD Report - Global Progress for the Banking Sector: http://www.bcsconsulting.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/BCS-TCFD-Global-Progress-Report-for-the-Banking-Sector-060521.pdf For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub: https://climate.garp.org/   If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com   ------------------   Hector Fontaine - Principal Consultant at BCS Consulting   Hector is a Risk & Finance management consultant and Sustainable Finance lead for BCS Consulting. BCS Consulting is focused on delivering complex business change projects to clients in banking and financial markets, working across Capital Markets, Retail & Corporate Banking and Finance & Risk functions in some of the world’s leading financial institutions. Hector, as Sustainable Finance Lead, has expertise spanning finance and risk. Over the past few years, he has directed and co-authored a number of significant research papers, including the ESG Banking Benchmark Report back in 2018, and more recently two comprehensive reviews of the adoption and implementation of TCFD in the banking sector.

In this installment of the Climate Risk Podcast we are joined by renowned economist Professor Sir Dieter Helm, whose extensive experience of advising governments on energy and natural capital helps us cut through the hype and face the realities of reaching net zero. In the run up to Glasgow’s COP26 as part of the global ‘race to zero’ initiative, we have seen a significant rise in commitments to reach net zero at both the national and firm level. But there are many routes to get there, different policy options, and of course difficult trade-offs to be considered. With all this activity, separating the noise from the substance and charting the right course can be challenging. That’s why today’s conversation will be a sobering and honest discussion about the nature and scale of the challenge. Critiques of existing policy and ‘net zero’ commitments will be explored, as well as a roadmap for a country to achieve net zero in a way that genuinely ends its contribution to global climate change. This episode will directly address: why achieving net zero doesn’t necessarily end your contribution to global climate change; whether offsets are ever acceptable; and if growth is possible in a net zero world   Prof. Sir Dieter Helm’s website: http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/ A link through to Prof. Sir Dieter Helm’s authored works, including the subject of today’s show, Net Zero: How We Stop Causing Climate Change: http://www.dieterhelm.co.uk/books/   For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub: https://climate.garp.org/ If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com   ------------------   Sir Dieter Helm - Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College   Sir Dieter Helm is Professor of Economic Policy at the University of Oxford and Fellow in Economics at New College, Oxford. He was Independent Chair of the Natural Capital Committee, providing advice to the government on the sustainable use of natural capital, until the end of the second term of the Committee in November 2020.  In the New Year 2021 Honours List, Dieter was awarded a knighthood for services to the environment, energy and utilities policy. He has written many books, most recently Net Zero (September 2020, William Collins) in which he addresses the action we all need to take to tackle the climate emergency. His other books include: Green & Prosperous Land  (2019, William Collins), Burn Out: The Endgame for Fossil Fuels  (2017), The Carbon Crunch: Revised and Updated (2015) and Natural Capital: Valuing the Planet  (2016), all published by Yale University Press. Dieter has provided extensive advice to UK and European governments, including The Cost of Energy Review for the UK government in October 2017 and for the European Commission in preparing the Energy Roadmap 2030. He served both as a special advisor to the European Commissioner for Energy and as Chairman of the Ad Hoc Advisory Group on the Roadmap. He also assisted the Polish government in its presidency of the European Union Council. Dieter is Chairman of Natural Capital Research, developing natural capital models and assessments for the better use of land, and Honorary Vice President of the Berkshire, Buckinghamshire and Oxfordshire Wildlife Trust.

In this instalment of the Climate Risk Podcast we are turning our attention to agriculture, forestry and land use, a sector that both affects, and is affected by, climate change. Producing approximately 20% of total global greenhouse gasses, agriculture, forestry and land use is considered the second largest source of emissions after energy production, making it a critical focus for global decarbonisation. But the sector’s sensitivity to changes in temperature and precipitation, as well as extreme weather more generally, means that it is also particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change. With that said, there are positives to be drawn out of this situation. This is because many of the responses needed to the sector’s high emissions and physical vulnerabilities overlap to create compelling win-win situations. Well placed investments in agriculture combine emissions reductions with resilience building which, in turn, reduce financial risks for the sector. To illustrate this, today’s episode will have three points of focus: How financial institutions can support the sector in locating and acting upon opportunities to reduce climate risk and build resilience The role of data in successfully identifying and responding to these win-wins The lessons that we can take from this sector and apply elsewhere   Environmental Defense Fund (EDF) Website: https://www.edf.org/ Financing Resilient Agriculture Report: https://www.edf.org/sites/default/files/content/Financing_Resilient_Agriculture_Report.pdf For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub: https://climate.garp.org/   If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at - climateriskpodcast@garp.com   ------------------   Maggie Monast - Director of Working Lands at Environmental Defense Fund (EDF)   During the past 10 years, Maggie has held a variety of roles at EDF, working with farmers, food companies, agricultural organizations, and others, such as financial firms, to create an agricultural system that drives climate stability, clean water, and food security. Maggie works to quantify the farm financial impacts of conservation practice adoption, collaborates with major corporations to develop sustainability initiatives, and develops innovative financial incentives to advance sustainable agriculture.  

In this instalment of the Climate Risk Podcast we will be taking a closer look at the role of real economy firms, and their boards, in the race to net zero. Last year we looked at the role that boards have in shaping firms’ climate strategies and developing approaches to managing the risks and opportunities from climate change. Since then, the pressure on boards has only mounted, given this more recent and growing emphasis on the transition to net zero. So today we return to the boardroom, with a few key questions: What is the role of boards as firms transition to net zero? What would good board engagement look like? What does a commitment to reach net zero really mean anyway?   If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at - climateriskpodcast@garp.com For more information, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub - https://climate.garp.org/   ------------------   Emily Farnworth - Deputy Director at the Centre for Climate Engagement, Hughes Hall, University of Cambridge   Emily has over 25 years of experience working with businesses, government and non-profit organisations to support the transition to a low-carbon economy. Emily has worked across multi-stakeholder groups and within specific industry sectors to collaborate on solutions to tackle climate change. During her time as Head of Climate Initiatives at the World Economic Forum, and now at the Centre for Climate Change, Emily has led research, campaigns and communications strategies aimed at creating systemic change in the way businesses manage climate risk and decarbonize operations.

In this instalment of the Climate Risk Podcast we address a few different topics all tied together by the central theme of climate data. Translating the output of climate, energy and economic models into decision useful climate analytics is fraught with challenges. It requires the bridging of informational gaps, but also the bridging of disciplines and communities. It also means navigating the uncertainty that comes with modelling something as complex as our global climate system. Progress is being made in this domain though, and whilst best practice is yet to be established, we are starting to get a sense of what good looks like. This episode covers: Being intentional about climate analytics - What data do you need and why do you need it? Navigating the uncertainty inherent in modelling complex systems What does good look like?   Check out the Four Twenty Seven website for more resource relating to climate data and analytics - https://427mt.com/   If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com For more information, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub - https://climate.garp.org/   ------------------   Emilie Mazzacurati – Founder and CEO of Four Twenty Seven & Global Head of Moody’s Climate Solutions Emilie Mazzacurati is the Founder and CEO of Four Twenty Seven, a provider of data, market intelligence and analysis related to physical climate and environmental risks. Driven by a conviction that businesses have a critical role to play in building resilience against climate change, and a need to bridge the gap between scientists, businesses, investors and governments, Emilie founded Four Twenty Seven to help meet this need back in 2012. In addition to her work with Four Twenty Seven, Emilie is a lecturer on Business and Climate Change at the University of California and is a frequent speaker at international events on climate risks and opportunities.

In this instalment of the Climate Risk Podcast we address two pressing questions facing asset managers and explore their implications for the financial sector more broadly. The first question is a fundamental one: what is the appropriate role for asset owners and asset managers in relation to climate change? How do these roles relate to one another and how far reaching are their obligations?  The second is an equally pressing question for the sector: engagement or divestment? When is it right to deploy one approach over the other? How impactful are these strategies and how can we navigate some of the unintended consequences? This episode covers: The role of asset owners and asset managers Engagement vs Divestment – what do these two approaches entail and is it really an either/or situation? The shift in momentum ahead of COP26 – a closer look at net-zero commitments   If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com For more information, visit GARP’s Climate Resources Hub - https://climate.garp.org/   ------------------   Meryam Omi - Head of Sustainability and Responsible Investment Strategy at LGIM Since joining LGIM in 2008, Meryam has been instrumental in establishing its engagement programme on key sustainability topics. She also led the launch of funds in the pioneering Future World range, as well as the Climate Impact Pledge, which is LGIM’s commitment to engage and act on climate change. In her current role, Meryam is responsible for integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) aspects into the investment process at LGIM and for creating responsible investment product solutions.