Climate Risk

As the relationship between climate change and financial risk become more apparent, the ability of firms to assess climate risk for their unique needs is becoming increasingly important. Assessing climate-related risks can help firms with their own investment and strategic decision-making, overall risk management, and may become important to help answer questions by investors, regulators, and other stakeholders. An industry of climate risk data and analytics tools has emerged in the last five years to help firms and investors better assess climate related risks. CFA tracks data and analytics tools useful for investment decision making (for both public and [...]

By Will Bugler (Acclimatise) & Andrew Eil (Climate Finance Advisors) This article also appears on the Acclimatise website here. Since 2015, the InsuResilience Investment Fund (IIF) has worked to build the climate resilience of poor and climate-vulnerable households as well as micro, small and medium enterprises, by increasing climate insurance coverage. Today, at a side event of the InsuResilience Global Partnership’s 4th Annual Forum, it has launched a new report “Protecting low-income communities through climate insurance”, which takes stock of its experience and achievements to date. As the first fund of its kind to raise private capital to invest in [...]

This op-ed originally appeared on Triple Pundit in two parts: Part 1, Part 2 Co-written with Joyce Coffee   In 2020, the world’s poor find themselves at the nexus of two crises: COVID-19 and climate change. The populations most vulnerable to COVID-19 – low-income individuals, women, informal workers and minorities – are the same populations that are most vulnerable to weather and climate crises. The poor disproportionately face obstacles to adapting to the effects of climate change due to unstable incomes, small savings, their work in the informal economy, a lack of access to credit, and of course, the reality [...]

COVID-19 reminds us that government has a critical role to promote the greater good of everyone, not only a few. Governments across the world (both national and local) and the policies they promote have always had the potential to make the difference in our ability to solve tough problems. Importantly, we have seen examples of both good government and not-great government in this moment of crisis. When we look beyond the current COVID-19 pandemic and the pressing need to rebuild the economy, the largest looming issue at our doorstep is undeniably the climate crisis. Addressing climate change takes leadership at [...]

Last week, an opinion article in the Washington Post by Robert Samuelson somewhat skeptically noted that recent announcements by BlackRock and other financial institutions were not a substitute for strong, unequivocal policy direction to address climate change. Samuelson was correct on one front: There is a desperate need for policy to align with, reinforce, and accelerate a low-carbon, climate-resilient transition. But we also need the financial sector to step up, and as we noted in a blog earlier this month, BlackRock’s announcement puts a marker down that the pathway for seeking solid investment returns runs through good climate risk screening [...]