Climate Risk Podcast

In this latest installment of the Climate Risk Podcast, we will be exploring two key concepts in the transition to net zero: greening finance and financing green. One interesting finding from GARP’s 2020 Climate Risk Survey was that over the next five years financial firms expect climate-related opportunities to have a bigger impact on their strategies than climate-related risks, underlining the fact that navigating the impacts of climate change also means being alive to the opportunities being created. That’s why in today’s episode we are speaking with the head of an organisation that is actively working to bring together coalitions of global experts to identify and unlock barriers to impactful green investment. Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE, CEO of the Green Finance Institute, works at the intersection of policy making and finance and will be exploring some of the current leading efforts to align financial flows with the need to transition to a net-zero economy. Today’s episode covers: The distinction between greening finance and financing green How we can navigate barriers to green finance Embedding climate and sustainability in professional education A look ahead to COP26 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 *Please note that between the time of recording and the release of this episode, two potential green finance initiatives discussed towards the end of the interview have now been formally announced. The first is that on the 9th November 2020, the UK Government announced that the first UK sovereign green bonds will be issued during 2021. The second was the Government’s announcement that a UK Infrastructure Bank will be established to aid the UK’s response to the COVID 19 pandemic and transition to a net-zero economy by 2050. Links from today’s discussion: GFI Report - Accelerating green finance: Green Finance Taskforce report GFI Report - Financing energy efficient buildings: the path to retrofit at scale Ceres Report - Financing a Net-Zero Economy: Measuring and Addressing Climate Risk for Banks GARP Survey - Second Annual Global Survey of Climate Risk Management at Financial Firms   ------------------   Dr. Rhian-Mari Thomas OBE – Chief Executive Officer at Green Finance Institute Rhian-Mari began her banking career at Barclays Investment Bank in 2000, spending 10 years in leveraged finance and financial sponsors coverage before holding a succession of leadership roles across Barclays Corporate Bank and Barclaycard. Rhian-Mari’s time at Barclays culminated in the role of Global Head of Green Banking, during which time she was responsible for founding and chairing the Barclays Green Banking Council, a body that developed and launched Barclays’ suite of green finance products and services. In 2019, Rhian-Mari was awarded an OBE for services to green banking and was appointed chief executive of the Green Finance Institute. In addition to this role, Rhian-Mari is also an Emeritus Member of the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), a commissioner for the Commission for Carbon Charging and an Advisor to the UK Government’s Climate Finance Accelerator programme.  

In this latest instalment of the Climate Risk Podcast, we will be taking a closer look at the financial risks associated with energy and water systems, and how these could change as the impacts of climate change increase. In this series we have stressed the importance of risk professionals building up a holistic view of climate risk. This requires better understanding the complex and interconnected nature of key systems in the climate, economy and society. Two of the most fundamental factors at play in our global system are undoubtedly energy and water, systems that are themselves highly interconnected. That’s why in today’s episode, you will hear from Michael Webber, one of the world’s leading thinkers on the subject of water, energy, and the risks generated by these complex systems. This discussion will cover: The interconnected systems of energy and water, and how these are being impacted by climate change How to navigate the financial risk of these impacts How to move forward - the role of technology, data and disclosures Key trade-offs and unintended consequences of action 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 ------------------ Michael Webber – Chief Science and Technology Officer at ENGIE & Josey Centennial Professor in Energy Resources at the University of Texas at Austin Michael’s expertise spans research and education at the convergence of engineering, policy, and commercialization on topics related to innovation, energy, and the environment. In addition to authoring more than 400 publications and serving on the advisory board for Scientific American, Michael has published two insightful books on the topic of energy. 2016’s Thirst for Power addresses the connections between earth’s most valuable resources and offers an approach toward a sustainable future. 2019’s Power Trip is also packed full of insights as we attempt to resolve the tension that exists between our growing demand for energy and its impact on the planet.

The systemic and existential nature of the risks arising from climate change requires us to engage with the problem strategically at a high level. But how can we do this when the problem is so vast and complex? One approach is the application of systems theory to our planet in a discipline known as earth system science. This approach treats the whole globe as a single complex system, observing the interactions of sub-systems such as our atmosphere and biosphere, as well as the feedback loops that act to stabilise or destabilise the fundamental conditions for life. This approach has already unlocked a number of key insights for understanding the causes and impacts of climate change and is a vitally important perspective for anyone wanting to better understand complex and interconnected nature of the risks from climate change. During this episode, you will hear from Tim Lenton, a leading academic in the field of earth system science and co-author of the seminal and award-winning paper on climatic tipping points and the non-linearity of climate change (https://www.pnas.org/content/105/6/1786). In addition to discussing systems theory and a number of critical climatic tipping points, Tim also provides insights into the various emissions pathways that lie ahead of us and shines a light on some of the often underappreciated social impacts of climate change such as near term mass migration. 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   Tim Lenton – Professor of Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter Tim Lenton is Director of the Global Systems Institute and Chair in Climate Change and Earth System Science at the University of Exeter. Tim has over 20 years of research experience in studying the Earth as a system and developing and using models to understand its behaviour. He has achieved many accolades, including the Times Higher Education Award for Research Project of the Year 2008 and the Royal Society Wolfson Research Merit Award, 2013. He is a Turing Fellow and a Fellow of the Linnean Society, the Geological Society and the Society of Biology.

Consumer sentiment is a critical part of climate transition risk. As consumers become increasingly aware of the impact goods and services are having on the planet, we will start to see profound shifts in demand. Join us today as we hear from James Hand, Co-founder of the social enterprise GIKI, an organisation that is creating apps and data tools to inform the public about the impact of their consumption and drive greater transparency in the real economy. James also reflects on the current state of ESG and how we can make ESG data more useful for driving decision making. Giki Badges: An app to help you find sustainable and healthy products in the UK supermarket - https://badges.giki.earth/ Giki Zero: Your free personal guide to understand, track and lighten your footprint on the planet - https://zero.giki.earth/  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    James Hand – Co-Founder and Data Scientist, Giki James Hand is a co-founder of the social enterprise Giki. Giki’s mission is to help people live more sustainably. Amongst their various initiatives, Giki has developed Giki Zero, a step by step sustainable life guide, as well as Giki Badges, an app to help people in the UK find sustainable food and products. Before founding Giki, James has had a career in asset management, including roles as Co-Chief Investment Officer at Investec Asset Management (now Ninety One), and co-founder of the innovative 4Factor equity team. James has also been a longstanding advocate of embedding environmental, social and governance issues – often referred to as ESG - in investment decisions. With expertise in data analysis, behavioural finance and company research, James is perfectly poised to talk to us about the challenges of creating readily available and digestible information to help consumers navigate the complex world of sustainability.

What are some of the limitations of the current disclosure frameworks for use by risk managers, and how can we tell when companies are saying one thing but doing another?  In recent months we have seen climate risk disclosure frameworks, such as the one set out by the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), increasing in popularity. And whilst these developments are to be welcomed, current recommendations fall short of capturing a complete picture of a firm’s activities. From a risk management perspective, that can be problematic. The omission of certain reporting categories, such as an organisation’s voting record or lobbying activities, opens up the potential for firms to greenwash, introducing additional risks and undermining efforts to reach net zero. That is why in today’s episode we are in conversation with Dylan Tanner, Co-founder and Executive Director of Influence Map, a UK based non-profit working to shine a light on corporate lobbying activities and voting records. Find out how the work at Influence Map is helping to drive climate action by increasing transparency and accountability across firms in the financial sector and real economy. Influence Map’s Website: https://influencemap.org/index.html 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   Dylan Tanner – Executive Director and Co-founder, Influence Map As well as having overall responsibility for InfluenceMap's operations globally, Dylan manages the FinanceMap platform. Prior to co-founding InfluenceMap, Dylan established a market-leading environmental consultancy in Tokyo which is now ERM Japan. Dylan grew and led a 50-person team engaging in a wide variety of corporate and technical advisory work in Japan and Asia covering environmental audits, land remediation, corporate sustainability and climate strategies. Dylan grew up in Japan and is currently living in London. He holds a MSc in Environmental Technology from Imperial College and a PhD in Theoretical Physics and Mathematics from Kings College London. Dylan has an Erdős–Bacon number of 8.

Originally released on the GARP Risk Podcast on July 16, 2020. In this episode of the Climate Risk Podcast series, we are moving beyond financial services to look at how climate change will affect firms in the real economy. We will be joined by Julie Baddeley, one of the UK’s most experienced women directors, who will be sharing insights on this topic from the perspective of the Board. Julie is also one of the founders of Chapter Zero, a fast-growing network for Chairs, Committee Chairs and Non-Executive Directors. Chapter Zero has been established to provide support, education and tools to this important group on the matters of climate change and the associated risks and opportunities. Links to find out more about Chapter Zero, as well as some of there useful educational tools, can be found below.   Links from today’s discussion Chapter Zero’s Website: https://www.chapterzero.org.uk/ Chapter Zero’s Toolkit for Boards: https://www.chapterzero.org.uk/toolkit/ Chapter Zero’s Change Management Toolkit: https://www.chapterzero.org.uk/change-management/ GARP’s 2020 Survey of Climate Risk Management at Financial Firms: https://climate.garp.org/insight/second-annual-global-survey-of-climate-risk-management-at-financial-firms/   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     Julie Baddeley - Chair of Steering Group, Chapter Zero Julie Baddeley is one of the UK’s most experienced women directors having served in an executive and non-executive capacity on the boards of leading companies in the FTSE 100 and 250 indices, as well as major public sector organisations. In 2001 she moved to a portfolio career and has served as a director across a range of sectors including consumer, retail, financial services, professional services and global industrial. She was chairman of global recruitment company Harvey Nash plc until its sale in 2018. At the Said Business School, Julie coached top business teams from around the world on the execution of business strategy, having previously been the partner in charge of Accenture’s change management practice in Europe. She was Executive Director at Woolwich plc responsible for HR, IT and the insurance businesses. Julie is active in raising the awareness of boards of UK quoted companies on the impact of climate change on their business models and balance sheets, and the impact they are having on the global climate. She is Director of the Hughes Hall Centre for Climate Change Engagement, which aims to bring Cambridge University thinking on climate science, law, regulation, risk and communication into the boardroom.          

Originally released on the GARP Risk Podcast on June 11, 2020. Continuing our theme from the last episode of the COVID series, in this special episode of the Climate Risk Podcast Series, host and Co-president of the GARP Risk Institute, Jo Paisley, is again joined by John Scott, Head of Sustainability Risk for the Zurich Insurance Group. Having briefly touched on some of the interconnections that exist between climate change and the ongoing COIVID-19 crisis in the previous episode, John has kindly returned to talk in more depth about this timely subject.   The episode addresses three key questions: Why does climate change make the occurrence of future pandemics more likely? Why would climate change worsen the impacts of a pandemic, whilst making the response harder? Why is this important for risk professionals and what is their role moving forward?   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 

Originally released on the GARP Risk Podcast on June 4, 2020. Insurance plays such an important role in how we collectively navigate risk and many insurance firms are already used to dealing with the extreme weather events that are being made worse and more frequent by climate change. It is therefore important that the experience and insights found within the insurance sector are brought to bear on the pressing task of managing climate risk.   In this episode, host and Co-president of the GARP Risk Institute, Jo Paisley, is joined by John Scott, Head of Sustainability Risk for the Zurich Insurance Group. Through this conversation you will find specific insights into the nature of physical risk, as well as the ways in which insurance firms are positioned to guide effective action and investment towards both mitigation and adaptation efforts.     If you have any questions, thoughts or feedback regarding the Climate Risk podcast series, we would love to hear from you. Please email us at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com   --------------------------------   Speaker Bio: John Scott is Head of Sustainability Risk for the Zurich Insurance Group. He joined Zurich in 2001 becoming Head of Risk Insight in 2007 and was Chief Risk Officer for Zurich’s Global Corporate and Commercial Insurance businesses from 2009 to 2017. He took on his current role in 2018. John leads the Group’s engagement on sustainability risk, both internally and externally as the way Zurich delivers its purpose and values. For the last ten years, in his roles as CRO for Commercial Insurance and as Head of Sustainability Risk, John has increasingly focused on climate change as a risk that affects the insurance industry. His unique combination of previous roles and experiences in the oil & gas and chemicals industries, together with his involvement in many industry and Government organisations, has given him a deep understanding of the risks and opportunities that climate change presents to companies, governments and society at large. John is a member of the Institute of Directors in the UK, is on the Advisory Board to the World Economic Forum Global Risks Report and has contributed to industry and Government policy on climate change and green finance, through many organisations. John’s expertise in sustainability risk and, in particular climate change risk, has made him a sought-after speaker at numerous international conferences.

Originally released on the GARP Risk Podcast on April 23, 2020. Welcome back to GARP’s Climate Risk Podcast Series. Through the course of this series we will be bringing you insights from those working at the cutting edge of climate change. We will be joined by regulators, business leaders and risk practitioners who will help us build up a holistic view of the risks and opportunities that climate change poses and explore how this might affect you in your day to day work. In this episode, host and Co-president of the GARP Risk Institute, Jo Paisley, is joined by Betsy Nelson, recently retired CRO at the EBRD. Here at GARP, we have been emphasising the importance of placing the risks associated with climate change in the broader context of sustainability, which is why we think the perspective of a development bank is such an important one.   Through this episode, you will gain insights into: The pros and cons of implementing TCFD The appropriate role of stress testing and scenario analysis The difficult question of engagement vs. divestment.     Speaker Bio: Former Vice President Risk and Chief Risk Officer of EBRD (European Bank of Reconstruction and Development) Betsy Nelson became the EBRD's Vice President Risk and Compliance and Chief Risk Officer in November 2016 and served in that role until December 2019. She had been previously Vice President of Risk. She was a member of the Bank's Executive Committee. Ms Nelson joined the EBRD in March 2012 as Vice President of the then combined Risk and Resources (Human Resources, Administrative Services and IT) and has extensive experience in the financial sector. For the three years prior to joining the EBRD, she was the Head of Credit Department in the Risk Specialists Division of the Financial Services Authority (FSA, now PRA) in the United Kingdom, where she built the Authority’s first Credit Department with a team of wholesale, retail, structured finance and Basel credit model experts. Before this she had a career spanning 30 years at JPMorgan Chase. She has worked most of her career in Europe and the UK. In her last 10 years at JPMorgan Chase, she held a number of senior management positions, including Head of Corporate Banking and Head of Client Credit Management, both for the EMEA region.

Originally released on the GARP Risk Podcast on March 17, 2020. Welcome to the first episode of GARP Podcasts Climate Risk Series. Through the course of this series we will be bringing you insights from those working at the cutting edge of climate change. We will be joined by regulators, business leaders and risk practitioners who will help us build up a holistic view of the risks and opportunities that climate change poses and explore how this might affect you in your day to day work.   In today’s show, host and Co-president of the GARP Risk Institute, Jo Paisley, is joined by Michael Sheren, Senior Adviser at the Bank of England, to discuss three foundational questions:  Where have we come from? Where are we now? Where do we need to go?