What We Learned About Climate Risk in 2023

Release Date: 01/18/2024

Modelling Economic Complexity: Insights for Risk Professionals

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from Prof. J. Doyne Farmer, Professor of Complex Systems Science at the University of Oxford, as we explore new modelling approaches designed to better capture the complex and chaotic nature of our climate and economy. We spend a lot of time on this podcast covering the transition to a low carbon economy, which will be driven largely by policies and technological innovation. These policies tend to be based on insights from economics. And our view on the pace of innovation is often informed by expert judgement. But traditional economic models often oversimplify the world, leading to poor...

Predicting Our Climate Future: What We Do, Don’t and Can’t Know

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from Prof. David Stainforth of LSE’s Grantham Research Institute, as we explore the limitations of climate modelling and the implications for risk management. There are some things in life that we can be virtually certain about: if one throws a ball into the air, it will fall back down. Similarly, scientists have evidence beyond reasonable doubt that atmospheric concentrations of carbon dioxide have increased a lot in the recent past. But there are quite a lot of things that we don’t know with any confidence, giving rise to significant uncertainty when we try to forecast those...

How to Fix Climate Change & Biodiversity Loss at the Same Time

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from Prof. Pete Smith of the University of Aberdeen, as we explore the overlap in the challenges from, and solutions to, climate change and biodiversity loss. Climate change and biodiversity loss are often treated separately – in science, policy, and even risk management. But as the connections between these global crises come into sharper focus, it’s clear that understanding them together is essential for real progress. In this episode, we break down those silos of climate and nature, exploring an integrated approach and how it might help us address these challenges...

Carbon Pricing: Harnessing the Power of Markets to Drive Climate Action

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from Gordon Bennett, Managing Director at ICE, as we dive into theory and practice of carbon pricing and its important role in driving the transition to net zero. Carbon pricing is the poster child of market-based solutions to climate change. The principle is simple: by assigning a cost to greenhouse gas emissions, we incentivize polluters to emit less, and to do so in the most cost-effective way. But there’s a significant gap between the theory and practice. Currently, only 24% of global emissions – about 12.8 gigatonnes – are covered by pricing mechanisms such as carbon taxes...

Rethinking Natural Catastrophe Modeling: New Approaches for a Changing Climate

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from three leading experts in natural catastrophe modeling, as we explore how climate change is causing the insurance industry to rethink their approach to modeling extreme weather. In the previous episode, we discussed the challenges facing the insurance industry from climate change – so in this episode, we’re going to dive into some of the solutions. Since natural catastrophe (Nat Cat) modeling was established in the late 1980s, the predictive power of their models has come from the statistical analysis of historical data. But as climate change continues to push the frequency and...

Uninsurable: The Future of Insurance in a Changing Climate

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from two leading experts, as we explore how insurance is adapting to climate change and the role of the industry beyond underwriting. Insurance plays a critical role in protecting households and businesses from the impacts of climate change, and with physical risks on the rise, it will become ever more important. However, insurers have also been significantly impacted by these risks, with annual losses from natural catastrophes exceeding 100 billion dollars for four consecutive years. The primary concern is that these physical risks eventually become uninsurable, as we are already...

Urban Resilience: How Our Cities Must Adapt to Climate Change

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from Emma Howard Boyd CBE, Chair of the London Climate Resilience Review, as we dive into the challenges of climate adaptation and what it means for our cities. 2023 was not only the warmest year on record, it also marked the warmest 10-year period on record. As we witness first-hand the impacts of a warming climate, including heatwaves, more intense precipitation and increased flooding, the case for building resilience against these risks becomes ever more important. This is particularly so in our cities, where the concentration of populations and economic activity make adaptation...

GARP’s Sustainability & Climate Risk Certificate: Register Now

Climate Risk Podcast

In this special episode, hear from Tony Rooke, Executive Director at Howden Group Holdings and Beth Gould Creller, GARP’s Sustainability & Climate Risk Program Lead, as they discuss the recent improvements to the SCR’s syllabus and learning experience. Long-time listeners of the podcast will have noticed that we often mention GARP’s Sustainability & Climate Risk (SCR) Certificate. It’s a program that GARP launched in 2020, providing all the foundational knowledge you need to become a climate risk leader within your own firm. This episode is a special one, as we bring...

Why NDCs Aren’t Working and How to Fix Them

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from Lord Adair Turner, Chair of the Energy Transitions Commission, as we explore the shortcomings of nationally determined contributions and how they might be improved. Nationally determined contributions, or NDCs, are a bit like transition plans for countries, in that they set out what a country plans to do in order to meet the ambitions of the Paris Agreement. However, NDCs are voluntary, and collectively they don’t currently have us on track to limit global warming to less than 2 degrees, let alone the more ambitious target of 1.5 degrees. Today’s guest believes that this is a...

Why Nature Belongs in Corporate Thinking

Climate Risk Podcast

Hear from Robin Millington, CEO of Planet Tracker, as we discuss how and why businesses should be thinking about their dependencies and impacts on nature. Sustainability is a complex topic, and for a long time, climate has been at the heart of discussion. Other challenges like pollution and biodiversity loss have often been sidelined. Recently however, following the work of the TNFD and others, these issues have risen up the corporate agenda, within the wider context of our impact and dependency on nature. Throughout her career, this guest has highlighted the importance of integrating...

More Episodes

Hear from Jo Paisley and Maxine Nelson of the GARP Risk Institute as they look back on key learnings from the latest season of the Climate Risk Podcast.

As we head into 2024, Jo and Maxine look back at the past year of Climate Risk Podcasts, reviewing key learnings from our guests and discussing ongoing trends in climate risk management.

From academics to ambassadors, CEOs to entrepreneurs, we’ve upheld our promise to showcase a variety of different perspectives on climate risk and sustainability. This episode re-examines the rich knowledge that has been shared on the Climate Risk Podcast over the last 12 months, creating a narrative of climate and nature risk wisdom to guide our listeners through this fast-moving field.

So, today’s episode will explore:

What we’ve learnt about the physical risks associated with climate change and nature loss;
The key risks that arise in the transition to a net-zero world; and
How financial firms are managing these risks.

To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate

Links to featured episodes:

David Schimel and Pooja Khosla - Bridging the Gap between Climate Science and Risk Management

Dr. Erica Thompson - The Power and Pitfalls of Models in Climate Risk Management

Rohan Hamden - Why Extreme Climate Physical Risks Are Closer Than You Might Think

Mike Azlen - The Future of the Carbon Markets Explained for Risk Professionals

Dr. Nicola Ranger - Balancing Mitigation and Adaptation: Insights for the Financial Sector

Simon Zadek - TNFD and Beyond: An Introduction to Nature in Finance

Professor Jo Handelsman - Soil: An Invisible Crisis and Massive Climate Opportunity

Nigel Topping - The COP28 Survival Guide: How it Works and What to Expect

Jane Stevensen - License to Drill: What New Oil & Gas Extraction Means for the Energy Transition

Nicky Dee - From Startup to Sustainability: Innovating For The Climate Emergency

Natalia Dorfman - Powerful Risk Management: Insurance Foundations for High-Integrity Carbon Markets