A great success for the inaugural edition of the EDHEC Climate Finance Conference

A great success for the inaugural edition of the EDHEC Climate Finance Conference: Threats and Opportunities for Asset Owners and Asset Managers, organised by EDHEC-Risk Institute, with over 140 professionals in attendance at the Palais Brongniart in Paris, to debate the future finance of climate change, on December 17, 2019.

The conference presented the research carried out by EDHEC-Risk Institute and EDHEC Business School with the aim to showcase the highest quality thinking and research in the area of Sustainable Investing.

The audience, made of top executives from investment and wealth management companies, banks, institutional investors, regulators and policy makers really enjoyed the good balance between academic insights and practical applications. A nice opportunity to interact with experts on sustainable finance, including Lionel Martellini (Director of EDHEC-Risk Institute), Gianfranco Gianfrate (Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School), Riccardo Rebonato (Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School), Erik Christiansen (ESG & Low Carbon Solutions Specialist, Scientific Beta), Abraham Lioui (Professor of Finance, EDHEC Business School) and professional experts from the industry.

Harrison Hong, John R. Eckel, Jr. Professor of Financial Economics at Columbia University, and recipient of the Fischer Black Prize, given every two years by the American Finance Association to the best finance economist under the age of 40, gave a keynote address on The Sustainable Investing Proposition. The morning conference followed with presentations on the following themes:

• The landscape of climate finance

• Which safe asset for climate risk?

• Incorporating climate risk in equity factor investing strategies

• Approaching climate risk from an asset owner perspective

The morning conference closed with a roundtable session entitled "Approaching Climate Risk from an Asset Owner Perspective", moderated by Frédric Samama, Head of Responsible Investing at Amundi and gathered distinguished industry speakers, including Andreas Stang, Head of ESG, PFA AM, Olivier Rousseau, Executive Director at Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites – FRR (The French Pension Reserve Fund) and Jaap van Dam, Managing Director Investment Strategy, PGGM.

During the afternoon, the conference followed with two presentations on the following themes:

• Impact of climate risk in credit analysis

• Advances in climate risk stress testing

The conference closed with a roundtable session entitled "Measuring and Managing Climate Risk", moderated by Jean-Michel Beacco, CEO for the Louis Bachelier Institute (ILB) and featuring: Charlotte Gardes, Deputy Head of Unit, Sustainable Finance & ESG reporting, French Treasury, Laurent Chatelin, Managing Director, Marguerite Fund, Bernard de Longevialle, Global Head of Sustainable Finance, S&P  and Clément Bourgey, Deputy Head of Financial Stability Department at Banque de France and Head of the NGFS Secretariat.   

The conference benefits from the support of AMUNDI and endorsement by La Place Fintech and the Louis Bachelier Institute.

You can access here the full programme and the presentation abstracts.