In response to a call from G20 leaders, the Financial Stability Board established the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) to enhance transparency on the financial risks to investors from climate change. The TCFD has published guidelines for voluntary, consistent climate-related financial risk disclosures covering the physical, liability and transition risks associated with climate change.
Scenario analysis is recommended as an important tool to assess the potential implications of these climate related risks and opportunities. However, a TCFD survey found that companies find scenario analysis the most challenging aspect of disclosure, due to a lack of data, and a lack of standardised metrics and targets. As such, companies have often avoided disclosing the results of scenario analysis, and the assumptions that have fed into the process.
With data gaps acting as a barrier for better climate-related scenario analysis and disclosure, financial services firms have been seeking alternative sources. The ability of satellites to deliver global data on the Earth system, providing long-term and consistent Earth Observation (EO) datasets enable identification of significant trends and patterns. The talk will cover the range of space-enabled climate datasets and tools, often used in combination with other data sources, that can support quantitative scenario analyses and thus enable financial services firms to better analyse their climate risk, disclose their exposure and assess impact of green investment in a more robust and meaningful way.
Speakers
Zof Stott, Assimila
Zofia Stott has a PhD in physics and 30 years’ experience in science and technology policy, environmental monitoring and information technology. Experience includes project management, business development, technical consultancy, organisation of workshops and acting as technical rapporteur and facilitator of high level working groups. Much of her technical consultancy work has been directed towards environmental programmes, developing public sector strategy, road mapping and forward look studies in support of UK government departments, European Commission and European Space Agency. She has a long association with environmental research programmes and was, until recently, Programme Manager for the National Centre for Earth Observation funded by NERC and aimed at using satellite data to test Earth system models.
Sophia Burke, AmbioTEK
Sophia Burke has a PhD in hydrology specialising in impact of drought, floods and climate change. Sophia works for AmbioTEK CIC, a not-for-profit that develops software and hardware to better monitor and manage water and natural hazards around the world, and is committed to making better use of EO (Earth Observed) data decision making at a local, regional and global scale. AmbioTEK has co-developed a series of high quality, open source environmental decision support tools with Kings College London that use global EO climate and other spatial data for scenario analyses.