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Investors are Waking Up to Climate Risk

October 1, 2021 @ 9:00 am

The severity of this summer’s extreme weather events is creating a new sense of urgency for action to achieve a net-zero global economy by mid-century to avoid the most severe impacts of climate change. To achieve this, global carbon emissions must decline rapidly from their current levels. The changes required have huge implications for the energy sector, which is already facing mounting risks. Sensing a sea change in the importance of understanding climate risk in assessing firm valuation, institutional investors, large blockholder asset managers, and other investment advisors are clamoring for more detailed sustainability information and climate friendly stocks. Amy Myers Jaffe discusses the change in strategies across the energy investment landscape from private equity firms to large asset owners to the energy companies themselves and what it means for the future of the planet.

Co-sponsored by CAFIN, UC Investments, and UCSC Social Sciences Division. CAFIN and UC Investments will be continuing their 2021-22 speaker series through the coming of the academic year. The new set of webinars will focus on issues related to the interaction between the financial system and sustainable development goals: environmental, social, and governance (ESG). A subset of the talks will focus on financial sustainability, green finance, and, more generally, the role of the financial system in combating climate change.They will also touch on the issues related to the measurement and reporting of ESG sustainability by financial institutions.

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Amy Jaffe

Dr. Amy Jaffee

Research Professor and Managing Director of the Climate Policy Lab at The Fletcher School at Tufts University

Amy Myers Jaffe is author of Energy’s Digital Future: Harnessing Innovation for American Resilience and National Security. A leading expert on global energy policy and sustainability, Jaffe has previously served as the David M. Rubenstein Senior Fellow for Energy and the Environment at the Council on Foreign Relations and Executive Director for energy and sustainability at the University of California, Davis, where she led research on low or zero carbon fuels and transportation policy. Jaffe has also served as senior advisor for sustainability at the Office of the Chief Investment Officer at the University of California, Regents, assisting with the design and launch of their sustainable investing strategy. She currently is co-chair of the steering committee of the Women in Energy Initiative at Columbia University’s Center on Global Energy Policy. Jaffe has taught international energy policy, business, and sustainability courses at Tufts University, Rice University, University of California Davis and Yale University. Jaffe is widely published, including as co-author of Oil, Dollars, Debt and Crises: The Global Curse of Black Gold, with Dr. Mahmoud El-Gamal.

A frequent media commentator, Jaffe was 2020 president of the US Association for Energy Economics and holds a Senior Fellow award from that organization for her career contributions to the field of energy economics. She is a member of the Global Future Council on Net Zero Transition at the World Economic Forum (Davos) and a member of the Council on Foreign Relations.

    Jagdeep Baccher

    Jagdeep Baccher

    Chief Investment Officer, University of California Office of the President

    Jagdeep Singh Bachher is the University of California’s chief investment officer, responsible for managing the UC retirement, endowment and working

    capital investment products with $170 billion in assets under management. Before joining the UC system in 2014, Bachher was an executive vice president of venture and innovation for one of Canada’s large investment fund managers. He was with Alberta Investment Management Corp (AIMCo), based in Edmonton since 2009. He also served as the corporation’s deputy chief investment officer and chief operating officer. Prior to his position at AIMCo, Bachher served as president at JH Investments (Delaware) LLC and worked in the U.S. Wealth Management, Canadian, and Investments divisions of Manulife Financial and John Hancock. Before joining Manulife in 2004, he was an entrepreneur. Bachher received his Ph.D. and Master’s degrees in management sciences and B.A.Sc. degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Waterloo. He is the vice chair of the University of Waterloo Board of Governors and has been a champion for change in the investment business and gained an international reputation as an innovator.