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EVENT DETAILS |
The Great Pivot: Climate Action & the Finance Sector with Michelle Dunstan, Radley Horton & Satyajit Bose moderated by Alex Halliday
About this event
As the summer of severe extremes draws to close, awareness of climate change consequences-raging wildfires, blazing heatwaves, devastating floods, severe hurricanes-underscores the need for action. What does it take to cut greenhouse gas emissions enough to bend the global warming curve?
The first online Earth Series of the academic year - the first Columbia Climate School Earth Series - presents a discussion on the intersection between climate risks & the allocation of private capital, & the role of the financial services industry in achieving climate solutions. Climate School Founding Dean Alex Halliday will lead a conversation with Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory climate scientist Radley Horton, the Earth Institute's sustainability management & economics expert Satyajit Bose, & leading asset management firm AllianceBernstein's Michelle Dunstan to explore the power of partnerships & collaborative research to change decisions & bend the trajectory of climate change toward a more sustainable future.
The Speakers:
Michelle Dunstan is AllianceBernstein's Chief Responsibility Officer & a member of the firm's Operating Committee. In this role, she oversees AB's corporate responsibility practices & responsible investing strategy, including integrating environmental, social & governance (ESG) considerations throughout the firm's research, engagement & investment processes. Dunstan also oversees the firm's ESG thought leadership & product development. She is also the co-creator & remains Senior Investment Advisor for AB's Global ESG Improvers Strategy, which focuses on engaging with & investing in companies that are advancing along ESG dimensions. Dunstan was AB's global head of responsible investing from 2020 to 2021. From 2012 to 2020, she was a portfolio manager for the Global Commodity Equity Fund. She joined AB in 2004 as a research analyst & covered commodities in emerging markets & North America for several years. Prior to joining the firm, Dunstan was an engagement manager at the Monitor Group (now Monitor Deloitte). She holds a BCom from Queen's University in Canada & an MBA from Harvard Business School, where she graduated with high distinction as a Baker Scholar.
Radley Horton is a Research Professor at Columbia University's Lamont-Doherty Earth Observatory. His research focuses on climate extremes, tail risks, climate impacts, & adaptation. He is the Lead Principal Investigator for the NOAA-Regional Integrated Sciences & Assessments-funded Consortium for Climate Risk in the Urban Northeast, & Columbia's Lead PI for the NSF-funded Megalopolitan Transformation Hub. Radley was a Convening Lead Author for the Third National Climate Assessment & is a member of the New York City Panel on Climate Change. Radley also teaches in Columbia University's Sustainability & Climate programs. Radley is a leading climate science communicator, appearing regularly on television, radio, & in print.
Satyajit Bose is Professor of Practice at Columbia University, where he teaches sustainable investing, climate finance & cost benefit analysis. His research interests include the value of sustainability metrics, carbon pricing, adaptation finance & the link between investment & sustainable development in emerging markets. He is co-author (with Dong Guo & Anne Simpson) of The Financial Ecosystem: The Role of Finance in Achieving Sustainability. He oversees the Sustainable Finance certificate & a number of research projects at Columbia's Earth Institute Research Program on Sustainability Policy & Management.
Satyajit has experience in investment banking, asset management, financial restructuring & automated weather risk management. He was a mergers & acquisitions banker, directed quantitative trading strategies at a convertible arbitrage hedge fund & developed machine learning algorithms to optimize weather-based decision tools. Satyajit Bose holds a B.A. & a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.
The Moderator:
Alex Halliday is the Founding Dean of the Columbia Climate School & Director of Columbia University's Earth Institute. He joined the Earth Institute in April 2018, after spending more than a decade at the University of Oxford, during which time he was dean of science & engineering. With about 400 published research papers, Halliday has been a pioneer in developing mass spectrometry to measure small isotopic variations, helping to shed light on the birth & early development of our solar system, the interior workings of the Earth, & the processes that affect Earth's surface environment.
About Us:
The climate crisis is a challenge like no other. Tackling it requires innovative, coordinated, & transdisciplinary approaches from a top university, like Columbia. The Climate School will marshal the University's strengths in basic disciplines & expand its resources to understand climate & its impact on society.
The Climate Group has selected the Columbia Climate School as its university partner for this year's Climate Week NYC. Running Sept. 20-26, Climate Week NYC convenes key climate leaders to accelerate climate action & discuss ambitious commitments ahead of the 26th UN Climate Change Conference, or COP26, later this fall in Glasgow.
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