Climate change

This workshop was the first in a series of OECD workshops in 2020-22 on Climate Science, Policy, Regulation and Practice to foster an outcome-oriented, interactive dialogue between climate researchers, financial regulators, supervisors, climate policy makers and industry practitioners.

This series of OECD workshops aims to:

(i) explore the potential policy implications of a range of evidence relating to climate science

(ii) identify where scientific insights might help with emerging policy problems that require robust and pragmatic ways forward in the near term.

(iii) inform OECD work, including work on the implications of climate change for vulnerable and developing countries.

The intention is to host several interactive workshops in 2020-22 to bring together a range of leading scientific, economic, financial experts with senior policy makers on focused issues.

This first virtual workshop on 3-4 September focusing on "Climate Change: Assumptions, Uncertainties and Surprises" set the scene by highlighting key issues relevant to the design and use of climate research and science within policy, regulation and practice. It framed key issues to support economic and financial decision actors (private and public) to interpret and use scientific evidence and modelling in their approaches to climate risks. In particular, physical and transition risks (e.g. to undertake climate stress tests and scenario analysis), and in their consistency assessments against mitigation and resilience, were addressed.

Subsequent workshops will examine in more detail how to implement climate risk management and climate policy alignment goals across areas relevant to physical and transition risks or impacts from climate change. They will discuss implications for financial regulators, industry practitioners, as well as policy makers.

Participants included: climate scientists and economists, policy makers, data providers and representatives from central banks, financial supervisors, investors, insurers, credit ratings agencies, and civil society.

The workshop was held as a virtual event (using Zoom), under the Chatham House rule. A summary record of the workshop will be circulated following the workshop (with no attribution).

This workshop was hosted thanks to support from ADEME and Finance for Tomorrow in the context of the Finance Climact initiative, supported by a grant from the LIFE program.

Presentations

Opening Session - Keynote presentation:

• Tim Palmer, Royal Society Research Professor in Climate Physics, Department of Physics, University of Oxford
  
  

Session 1: Climate modelling: Key insights and implications for policy and practice

• Ted Shepherd, Grantham Professor of Climate Science, University of Reading
• Friederike Otto, Acting Director, Environmental Change Institute, University of Oxford
• Sonia Seneviratne, Professor, Institute for Atmospheric and Climate Science, ETH Zürich
  
  

Keynote presentation on Climate economics: old insights, new insights and current frontiers

• Simon Dietz, Professor of Environmental Policy, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
  
  

Session 2: Socio-economic implications of climate impacts, and assessment of climate damages, catastrophe and physical risks

• Emily Boyd, Director, Lund University Centre for Sustainability Studies (LUCSUS)
• Stephane Hallegatte, Lead Economist, Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR), World Bank
• Swenja Surminski, Head of Adaptation Research, Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment, London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE)
  
  

Session 3: Climate mitigation: scenarios, assumptions and transition risks

• Keywan Riahi, Program Director, Energy, International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA)
• Elmar Kriegler, Acting Head, Research Department "Transformation Pathways", Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research (PIK)
• Harald Winkler, Professor, Faculty of Engineering and the Built Environment, University of Cape Town (UCT)
• Christophe McGlade, Senior Analyst, World Energy Outlook (WEO), Directorate of Sustainability, Technology & Outlooks, International Energy Agency (IEA)
  
  

Session 4: Climate risk management: Implications for the financial sector

• Irene Monasterolo, Assistant Professor of Climate Economics and Finance, Vienna University of Economics and Business
• David-Jan Jansen, Economist, the Netherlands Bank (DNB)
• Laurent Clerc, Director, Research and Risk Analysis, ACPR (Autorité de Contrôle Prudentiel et de Résolution), French supervisory authority
• Paul Hiebert, Head of Systemic Risk and Financial Institutions Division, European Central Bank (ECB)