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CFA Society New York’s Sustainable Investing Thought Leadership Group presents the Fourth Annual Sustainable Investing Conference:
Climate Change is a Given – How to Drive Value and Manage Risk
Wednesday, October 4, 2017
– CFA Institute CE: 8 Credits | Sponsored by Kaplan Schweser –
Date
Wednesday, October 4th, 2017
8:30 am – 6:00 pm
Location
CFA Society New York
1540 Broadway Suite 1010
New York, NY
Fees
Members $85
Nonmembers $150
8:30 a.m. – 9:00 a.m. Check-In
9:00 a.m. – 9:15 a.m. Welcome & Introduction
9:15 a.m. – 10:00 a.m. Fireside Chat: Incorporating Climate Change Risk into Investment Portfolios
Vonda Brunsting, Director, Capital Stewardship Program, Service Employees International Union (SEIU)
Adam Wolfensohn, Co-Managing Partner, Encourage Capital
10:00 a.m. – 10:45 a.m. Climate Change Products and Integration Techniques
Climate data is being used in new and insightful ways to capture value. Hear practitioners explain how their integration approaches enhance returns. The panel will also share their thoughts on strengths and weaknesses of data sets, methods of integration, and what lies ahead.
Timothy Dunn, CFA, Founder, Managing Member and CIO, Terra Alpha Investments, LLC
Karen Wong, CFA, Managing Director and Head of Equity Portfolio Management, Mellon Capital
Moderator: Michael Lear, CAIA, CFA, CIMA, Vice President and Financial Advisor, Bernstein Private Wealth Management
10:45 a.m. – 11:00 a.m. Break
11:00 a.m. – 11:45 a.m. Using Climate Data in Investment Decisions: A Case Study
Measuring the impact and performance of climate-related investments relies on the availability and quality of data on a range of complex and interrelated issues. We use a case study to highlight the way that asset managers and data services interact to produce sustainability information for investment decision making. This session will be a practical assessment of the ways investors can incorporate sustainability data into the investment process.
Ian van der Vlugt, Senior Technical Manager, CDP
Vikram Puppala, Associate Director, Carbon Solutions, Indexes, Green & Social Bond, Sustainalytics
Moderator: Elliot Trexler, President and CIO, Global Return Asset management, LLC
11:45 a.m. – 12:15 p.m. Lunch Break
12:15 p.m. – 1:30 p.m. Lunch Keynote: Public Policy & Investment – View from the State Level
Seth Magaziner, Treasurer, State of Rhode Island
1:30 p.m. – 1:45 p.m. Break
1:45 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Should ESG be Embedded as a Risk Factor in Multi-Factor Models?
Are new factors required to adequately describe co-movement of ESG securities, now that they comprise an established and rapidly growing market segment? To date, most commercial risk model providers have been slow to add ESG factors in their equity models. Is this due to lack of data? And what should investors understand about the current state of “ESG” as a factor – is this an alpha play right now, as many investors believe it is? How does climate change factor into these decisions and can investors profit from the lack of efficiency in modeling? A panel of experts will discuss ESG as a risk or alpha factor.
Lisa Goldberg Ph. D., Co-Director, Consortium for Data Analytics in Risk (CDAR), University of California, Berkeley and Director of Research, Aperio Group
George Bonne, PhD, PRM, Executive Director, Equity Factor Research, MSCI
Moderator: Jeffrey Bohn, Ph.D., Managing Director at Swiss Re and Head of the Swiss Re Research Institute
2:30 p.m. – 3:15 p.m. Public Sector Panel and Sustainable Cities
This panel will discuss the increasingly complicated challenges cities face from the long-term effects of climate change, and the related financial, environmental, and social risks and opportunities in meeting these challenges. Many city governments in the United States are pledging to meet the goals of the COP 21 Paris Agreement, with or without Federal government involvement. This is the trillion-dollar challenge that the capital markets can help municipal and state governments meet.
Zach Solomon, Vice President, Morgan Stanley
Rob Thomas, Chief of Energy and Environment, Deputy Energy Coordinator, City of Newark
Leonard Jones, Managing Director – Public Finance, Public Projects & Infrastructure Finance, Moody’s Investors Service
Moderator: Adam Krop, Sustainable Infrastructure Advisor, CDP
3:15 p.m. – 3:30 p.m. Break
3:30 p.m. – 4:15 p.m. Impact Investing: Climate Change Solutions
As markets for renewable resources, sustainable agriculture and consumer goods grow, investors are increasingly attracted to the opportunities in climate change solutions. Hear from leaders in impact investing about their approaches to drive returns and manage risk in some of the most innovative companies and funds in the market. Sustainable fisheries, ecosystem investment, and smart cities are just a few of the themes up for discussion in this session.
BILL HALLISEY, Co-Founder & Managing Partner, NewWorld Capital Group, LLC
Sasha Brown, Principal, Ecosystem Integrity Fund
Moderator: Kate Starr, CFA, Chief Investment Officer, Flat World Partners
4:15 p.m. – 5:00 p.m. What Markets Can Learn from Modeling Value at Risk from Climate Change
The increased frequency of climate change driven extreme weather events has pushed efforts to move beyond historically based probability and “risk of loss” modeling. Hear how modeling techniques are adapting to address this challenge, and what the financial markets can learn from these efforts to assess value at risk. We will reflect on how investors can better incorporate this information to identify portfolio exposures to climate change, as well as how analysts in different asset classes could broaden their analysis.
Laline Carvalho, Director, Financial Services Ratings Group, S&P
Robert Kopp, Director, Institute of Earth, Ocean, and Atmospheric Sciences and Professor, Earth and Planetary Sciences, at Rutgers University
Moderator: Andrea Dalton, CFA, Consultant, Revelio
5:00 p.m. – 6:00 p.m. Wrap Up & Reception
Date
Wednesday, Oct. 4th, 2017
8:30 am – 6:00 pm
Location
CFA Society New York
1540 Broadway Suite 1010
New York, NY
Fees
Member $85
Nonmember $150
Event Overview
What should investors think about when they think about “climate change”? Rising sea levels, floods, drought, starvation, infectious disease are only some of the possible outcomes of climate change. With scientific research pointing towards escalation, it is imperative, if not inevitable, that capital markets better incorporate these risks and identify opportunities. What data gives us insight into what companies are doing to prepare for and solve these issues? How well are companies disclosing this data? What kinds of investments could mitigate the consequences of climate change, and how could we improve investor returns where sustainability is paramount? Hear from thought leaders who are asset owners, asset managers, data providers, public servants, impact investors and others who are positioning their portfolios for climate change. Come and engage in a discussion focused on how best to drive investment decision making for value creation and risk mitigation in this evolving reality.
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