Posted on by Christopher K. Merker, Ph.D., CFA

Systemic Climate Risk and West Coast Wildfires (Chris Merker, CFA Enterprising)

https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2020/11/09/systemic-climate-risk-and-west-coast-wildfires/

Is 2020 the watershed year when the world begins to understand the concept of systemic risk in our interactions with the natural environment? What explains the recent drumbeat of headlines in the financial press and the accompanying fund flows?

COVID-19 is one reason. The pandemic has accelerated interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and influenced government policy, economic activity, and markets in a dramatic, swift, and entirely global way. This is in marked contrast to climate change–associated systemic risk, the awareness of which has developed over a much longer time frame.

Author: Christopher K. Merker, Ph.D., CFA

Christopher K. Merker, PhD, CFA, is a director with Private Asset Management at Robert W. Baird & Co. He holds a PhD in investment governance and fiduciary effectiveness from Marquette University, where he has taught the course “Sustainable Finance” since 2009. Executive director of Fund Governance Analytics (FGA), an ESG research partnership with Marquette University, he is a member of the CFA Institute ESG Working Group, an international committee currently exploring ESG standards, publishes the blog, Sustainable Finance, which covers current topics around governance and sustainability in investing, and is co-author of the book, The Trustee Governance Guide: The Five Imperatives of 21st Century Investing.
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