Category: Corporate Risk Assessments

How Can Asset Owners Manage Climate Risk?

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

Introduction: Why Climate Risk Matters for Asset Owners

In the world where quarterly corporate reporting makes it feel like financial markets are ruled by short-termism, asset owners stand out in contrast, managing their portfolios with horizons in the decades and even longer. With trillions in assets under management and the long-term well-being of their beneficiaries and other stakeholders as their goal, asset owners’ risk management practices must be robust.  This includes the consideration of factors beyond traditional financial metrics. While their long horizon allows asset owners to withstand short-term volatility, their portfolios may be exposed to higher levels of other risks, including those posed by a changing climate, which is not necessarily accounted for in asset prices.

Additionally, regulatory actions like the EU Action Plan on Sustainable Finance, growing global support of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and groups like the Network for Greening the Financial System, whose members include 42 central banks and supervisors, are pushing investors of all stripes to take physical climate risks into account, warning of dire systemic consequences if climate risks continue to go unpriced.

With climate risk moving from the fringes of finance to center stage, the challenge is to translate climate models and climate data into actionable intelligence for financial decision-making. Climate models are complex, incorporating information from many disciplines of earth science, and their outputs are unwieldy. However, when transformed into indicators at appropriate scales and timeframes, climate data provides essential forward-looking information for financial decision-makers.

Assessing Exposure to Inform Risk Management

Evaluating an asset’s exposure to physical climate hazards is challenging, yet also an essential first step in managing climate risks. Four Twenty Seven’s Physical Climate Risk Application (Application) allows investors to assess exposure to floods, sea level rise, hurricanes & typhoons, heat stress and water stress at the asset and portfolio levels. Asset owners leverage hazard exposure scores to identify regional and sectoral trends as well as specific hotspots. Flexible viewing options and digestible data provide insight for portfolio risk assessments and due diligence processes. Armed with climate risk data at decision-relevant scales, asset owners can begin to manage their risk.

Climate Data for Portfolio Management

Real estate, infrastructure, agriculture, timber and other real assets have long been an integral component of an asset owner’s portfolio due to their returns and the diversification they offer to the overall fund. However, many real assets are highly vulnerable to physical climate risks. These risks manifest in direct and indirect ways, including increased costs, reduced revenues, and decreased asset value.

Asset owners use Four Twenty Seven’s Application to evaluate forward-looking physical climate risk exposure. For example, the portfolio-specific summary table in Figure 1 provides a snapshot of exposure and serves as the starting point for the analysis of physical climate risks.  In this portfolio, hurricanes & typhoons, earthquakes, heat stress and water stress are the most prevalent hazards.

While asset owners frequently emphasize the hazards they view as most financially material—for instance floods, hurricanes, and sea level rise—heat stress and water stress can also have material financial impacts. For instance, a major heat wave across Europe in the summer of 2019 demonstrated how increasing temperatures can cause business disruptions and raise operating costs. Absent retrofits to address climate risks in European real estate, the total increase in energy bills for commercial buildings could potentially cost $300 billion (£457 billion) by 2050. Water stress, another potentially overlooked risk, can threaten the long-term operations of assets like thermal power plants that rely on large amounts of water for cooling. For example, Moody’s found that 11 major U.S. utilities representing over $31 billion in rate base have extreme risk to water stress, which has already caused some power utilities to retire capital-intensive generation facilities early.

In addition to providing an entry point for further analysis, metrics in the summary table are useful for risk reporting. As reporting requirements develop, outputs from the Physical Climate Risk Application will empower asset owners to effectively describe asset exposure, communicate how risks are being managed, and characterize their portfolios’ overall climate risk and resilience strategies.

Asset owners can also identify exposure hotspots, explore sectoral trends, and dive deeper into the exposure of individual assets. Figure 2 shows the same portfolio ranked by highest flood risk score. Floods can raise costs, cause business disruption, and decrease asset values.

Using the data in Figure 2, asset owners can consider shortening their holding periods for assets with the highest levels of exposure, ensure that they have appropriate insurance coverage, and evaluate if coverage or premium prices may rise in the future. As the climate changes, insurers’ risk tolerances may also reach their limits and they may seek to exit markets. It is thus essential for asset owners to monitor the evolving landscape. Beyond evaluating potential changes to insurance, asset owners can also use this data as an entry point for engagement with a building manager, to better understand the site’s flood history and investigate if the asset has flood defenses.

Institutional investors understand that, over the typical commercial real estate hold period of seven to ten years, the next buyer of their building is likely to be concerned by climate risk as well. The Application equips asset owners with the exposure data they need to make sure their portfolios are resilient to climate risks and continue to provide the returns they need and expect from the asset class.

Climate Data for Due Diligence

Beyond analyzing portfolios of existing holdings, the application’s real-time scoring allows asset owners to quickly incorporate physical climate analysis into their due diligence processes for new acquisitions. In addition to providing easily digestible, high-level screening results, granular climate data allows clients to continue to invest, for example, in valuable coastal markets with known exposure. Figure 3 shows exposure of nine facilities in Tokyo, where the combination of storm surge and sea level rise could cause $1 trillion (100 trillion yen) in damages in a 1-in-100 year storm. Because the sea level rise (and flood) data featured in the Application is at a scale of 90 x 90 meters, investors do not need to eliminate entire markets from their investment strategies. Rather than exiting a profitable market, asset owners can use the Four Twenty Seven Physical Climate Risk Application to selectively invest in assets with lower exposure.

Asset owners often use Four Twenty Seven data to set their own internal thresholds for further due diligence. Using the detailed site information, as shown in Figure 4, as well as the downloadable scorecard, analysts can quickly understand which hazards to investigate further.

Some investors require further due diligence for any assets that receive “High” or “Red Flag” scores. Deal teams may be tasked to investigate asset-specific features that would make it more resilient to specific climate hazards, such as freeboard above base flood elevation, onsite power generators, or water efficiency measures.

Conclusion

Real assets, whose time horizon of returns aligns well with the investment goals of asset owners, are exposed to physical hazards, which will continue to become more frequent and severe. Exploring asset-level climate hazard exposure is the first step to analyzing and ultimately managing physical climate risk. As regulation around climate risk rapidly evolves, mandates to monitor and report these risks will also expand. Equipped with a detailed understanding of their portfolio holdings’ exposure, asset owners are empowered to make better-informed investment and risk management decisions, ultimately enhancing the resilience of their portfolios to physical climate risk.

Download this case study.

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Four Twenty Seven offers on-demand physical climate risk scoring for real assets and other climate risk datasets for investors to assess their risk across asset classes. Learn more about Four Twenty Seven’s data or reach out to schedule a demo.

IIF Webinar: Quantifying the Impacts of Climate Change

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

This Institute of International Finance webinar (IIF) features a discussion on quantifying the impacts of climate change into balance sheets and cash flows and provides an overview of Moody’s growing climate risk offering. This webinar is part of the IIF ESG Webinar series.

Speakers

  • Emilie Mazzacurati, Founder & CEO of Four Twenty Seven, discusses Four Twenty Seven’s process for quantifying the exposure of economic and financial assets to physical climate hazards and highlights collaborations with Moody’s.
  • Jing Zhang, Managing Director, Global Head of Quantitative Research at Moody’s, presents on translating physical risk metrics into financial metrics.
  • Sonja Gibbs, Managing Director and Head of Sustainable Finance, Global Policy Initiatives at IIF moderates the conversation.

Newsletter: New On-Demand Climate Risk App

Posted on by Christina Guo
 

Four Twenty Seven's monthly newsletter highlights recent developments on climate risk and resilience. This month we announce our new on-demand climate risk scoring application, discuss RCP 8.5 and highlight developments in climate risk disclosure.
In Focus: Four Twenty Seven Announces its On-demand Climate Risk Application

Score thousands of assets in minutes with Four Twenty Seven’s new on-demand physical climate risk application.
We're delighted to announce that our new on-demand climate risk scoring tool is now live! This application responds to the financial sector’s growing call for the integration of granular, forward-looking climate data into investment decisions and risk management practices. Users enter addresses and facility types to receive information on their assets’ exposure to floods, sea level rise, hurricanes & typhoons, heat stress and water stress to mid-century. Detailed facility scorecards include data on the underlying risk drivers for each hazard and users can toggle between maps and tables to identify regional trends and multi-hazard exposure. This tool informs due diligence, risk management, enhanced portfolio construction, resilience investment and pre-loan evaluations to support the integration of climate risk into financial decision-making across use cases. “We are excited to bring our on-demand physical climate risk application to the market. Our app provides access to sophisticated climate model outputs in easily understandable metrics with just a few clicks,” says Founder & CEO Emilie Mazzacurati. “Real-time access to forward-looking, location-specific data on climate risk enables investors, banks and corporations to manage their risk and invest in resilience.”
Request a Demo
Moody's ESG and Climate Risk Businesses

Moody's Announces Global Head of ESG and Climate Risk Businesses
Moody's Corporation announced yesterday that Andrea Blackman has been appointed Moody's Global Head of ESG and Climate Risk Businesses. Andrea comes from a leadership position in Moody's Analytics CreditView. In her new position Andrea will lead Moody's strategy and vision for long-term growth in line with market demands for ESG and climate risk services. Moody's ESG and climate risk affiliates, including Four Twenty Seven and Vigeo Eiris will be part of this new business unit. Learn more about Moody's broad ESG and Climate Risk offering here.
RCP 8.5 - Still a Valid Possibility

Extracting the Scientific Uncertainties from the Policy Uncertainties
An article published in Nature last month sparked confusion about the legitimacy of Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) 8.5, but there are compelling reasons RCP 8.5 remains an important part of scenario analysis. The study's authors explain that the initial design of RCP 8.5 was to capture growing rates of coal production in China. They assert that since the rate of coal production has actually slowed, it's not appropriate to continue using this scenario as the "business-usual" scenario and rather it should be considered a highly unlikely extreme scenario. However, the article focuses on the policy drivers, rather than the scientific drivers, of warming. The authors do not explore the physical phenomenon, such as sudden release of methane (a powerful greenhouse gas) due to thawing of permafrost. This is one of several tipping points that could lead to RCP 8.5 outcomes by 2100, independent of how coal production evolves.

While the initial design of RCP 8.5 was intended to capture growing rates of coal production, it doesn’t mean the scenario can’t be a stand-in for other sources of emissions that could quickly accelerate due to tipping points. Bob Kopp, a climate scientist at Rutgers University, has previously pointed out on Twitter that "from a climate science perspective, RCP 8.5 is very useful, since we would like to know how models simulate a 5C world.”

It's important to note that under any scenario, we are committed to a certain amount of physical climate impacts to mid-century, regardless of RCP scenario. Temperature outcomes don't differ significantly under different RCP scenarios until after mid-century. For longer-term projections it is valuable to model impacts under several scenarios, such as RCP 4.5, RCP 7 (forthcoming in the latest generation of climate models) and RCP 8.5.
New Survey on the Quality of Climate Risk Reporting

Climate Risk Disclosures Lack Transparency
Companies tend to disclose more details on their exposure to transition risk than physical risk and disclosures still lack transparency on which models and assumptions companies use to assess risk, according to the recent European Financial Reporting Advisory Group report on How to Improve Climate-related Reporting. The report highlights that when firms approach disclosures solely from a compliance perspective, they miss an opportunity to genuinely identify their risk and improve their resilience. It also identifies best practices and current maturity of disclosures in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and the EU Non-financial Reporting Directive's non-binding guidelines on climate risk. The Climate Disclosure Standards Board also released an EU Environmental Reporting Handbook sharing examples of environmental and climate disclosures under the EU Non-Financial Reporting Directive.
Regulatory Action & Oversight on Climate Risk Disclosure

Australia and UK Each Announce Plans for New Disclosure Regulation

The Australian Prudential Regulation Authority joins regulators calling for climate stress tests, announcing that its banks will be required to conduct stress tests for climate risks under several scenarios. After a devastating bushfire season followed by damaging floods, regulators are increasing the urgency around implementing stress tests and plan to release more details within the next few weeks. Earlier this month the UK's Department for Work and Pensions announced its consideration of an amendment to the Pension Schemes Bill that would mandate that pensions disclose their approaches to climate change in line with the TCFD.

European Union Opens Public Consultation on Non-Financial Reporting Directive

Meanwhile the European Commission opened a public consultation on updates to its Non-Financial Reporting Directive. This is part of the EU's commitment to increasing sustainable investment in Europe under the European Green New Deal and the review will explore how adjusting disclosure guidelines can support these goals. Feedback is due by April 28.

UK's Financial Reporting Council to Review Climate Disclosures & Audits

Amid concerns that firms are not complying with increased regulations around climate risk disclosure, the UK's financial watch dog, the Financial Reporting Council, will review corporate disclosures and audits to ensure that they address reporting requirements. “Auditors have a responsibility to properly challenge management to assess and report the impact of climate change on their business,” FRC Chief Executive Jon Thompson said in a statement.
Financial Risks of Climate Change are Underpriced
Australia's bushfires are expected to reduce national GDP by 0.1-0.4 percentage points through this March. Meanwhile the UK confronts damaging floods, Europe had its warmest January on record and sea level rise threatens to inundate airports around the world. These are just a few of the many multifaceted impacts that climate change has on global economies. Recent commentaries published in Nature Energy discuss the global implications of climate change's potential impact on the energy sector, which drives much of the interconnected global economy. One commentary by UC Davis Professor Paul Griffin, highlights the particular exposure of this sector to physical climate risks, with fossil fuel infrastructure in the Gulf Coast and the exposure of California's utilities to wildfires, as noteworthy examples. Authors assert that if these risks continue to be underpriced, we risk a recession on par with the 2008 housing crisis.
Inside the Office at Four Twenty Seven

Meet Director, Financial Data Systems - Oren Israeli
Four Twenty Seven welcomes Oren as Director, Financial Data Systems. Oren leverages his 20 years of experience in the fintech industry to guide Four Twenty Seven’s product development agenda for financial and business data.

Oren is a strategic data and content expert, adept at launching and overseeing products and solutions to serve the top investment firms globally.
Upcoming Events

Join the Four Twenty Seven team at these events:
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Copyright © 2020 Four Twenty Seven, All rights reserved. Four Twenty Seven sends a newsletter focused on bringing climate intelligence into economic and financial decision-making for investors, corporations and governments. Fill in the form below to join our mailing list. As data controller, we collect your email address with your consent in order to send you our newsletter. Four Twenty Seven will never share your mailing information with anyone and you may unsubscribe at any moment. Please read our Terms and Conditions.Our mailing address is: Four Twenty Seven 2000 Hearst Ave Ste 304 Berkeley, CA 94709
   
 

Four Twenty Seven Announces its Physical Climate Risk Application

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

February 27, 2020 – BERKELEY, CA – Four Twenty Seven, an affiliate of Moody’s and the leading publisher of climate data for financial markets, today announces the release of a new on-demand climate risk scoring tool. This application responds to the financial sector’s growing call for the seamless integration of granular, forward-looking climate data into investment decisions and risk management practices.

Users are able to enter location and other data via an intuitive interface and immediately receive information on their assets’ exposure for floods, sea level rise, hurricanes & typhoons, heat stress and water stress to mid-century. The application allows users to browse and download detailed facility scorecards that include data on the underlying risk drivers for each hazard. The application also enables users to toggle between maps and tables to identify regional trends and multi-hazard exposure. Users can perform analyses for large volumes of locations via an API and integrate the outputs into downstream risk management and portfolio analysis applications.

As the material financial impacts of climate change become increasingly evident, understanding and preparing for climate risks is essential.  Real estate investors can use Four Twenty Seven’s physical climate risk app for due diligence and proactive risk management across their portfolio of properties. Portfolio managers can leverage the application to report climate risk exposure and enhance portfolio decision-making. Asset owners can evaluate long-term risk exposure and engage with corporations and managers to improve resilience. Banks can score thousands of locations at once to identify risk in commercial and residential lending portfolios. Corporations can identify risk hotspots and opportunities to build resilience in their global operations.

“We are excited to bring our on-demand physical climate risk application to the market.  Our app provides access to sophisticated climate model outputs in easily understandable metrics with just a few clicks,” says Four Twenty Seven’s  Founder & CEO, Emilie Mazzacurati. “Real-time access to forward-looking, location-specific data on climate risk enables investors, banks and corporations to manage their risk and invest in resilience.”

Learn more about the app or request a demo.

Download the Press Release.

Moody’s: Utilities Exposed to Increasing Climate Risk

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

The increasing frequency and severity of extreme weather events and chronic stresses driven by climate change have particular implications for the utility sector. In it’s report, US Regulated Electric Utilities Face Varied Exposure to Climate Hazards, Moody’s Investors Service leverages Four Twenty Seven’s physical climate risk data to explore the exposure of regulated electric utilities to climate hazards, including heat stress, water stress, flooding and hurricanes.

The analysis found that heat stress will likely have the greatest impact on utilities in the Midwest and southern Florida, reducing power grids’ efficiency and increasing expenditures. The Western U.S., specifically the Rocky Mountain states and California, is the region most exposed to long-term water stress. Since many electric utilities depend on water for cooling, water stress is typically credit negative for utilities.

In other areas of the country utilities are exposed to  extreme rainfall and flooding, which are responsible for many power outages. However, regulation and flood insurance help to reduce the credit impacts of floods. Along the East Coast and the Gulf of Mexico’s coastal areas, increasingly severe hurricanes and storm surges will threaten key infrastructure assets such as transmissions substations and power plants. While hurricanes can lead to substantial costs and disruptions for utilities, the states in these regions often have credit-supportive regulation, allowing utilities to recoup costs after these events.

Utility companies across the U.S. are exposed to a variety of physical climate risks that threaten to damage or destroy utility infrastructure, increase operating expenses and affect their credit. These risks, however, can be mitigated with resilience investments by utility companies and by regulation and adaptation in jurisdictions in which they operate.

Moody’s subscribers can read the full report here.

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To learn more about Four Twenty Seven’s climate risk data, check out our solutions for investors, banks and corporations or read our report on Assessing Exposure to Climate Risk in U.S. Municipalities.

Newsletter: Scenario Analysis for Physical Climate Risks

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

Four Twenty Seven's monthly newsletter highlights recent developments on climate risk and resilience. This month we feature a report on scenario analysis for physical climate risks, share technical elements of climate risk assessments and highlight new research on sea level rise.
In Focus: Scenario Analysis for
Physical Climate Risks

427 Report: Demystifying Scenario Analysis for Financial Stakeholders
Scenario analysis is an essential yet challenging component of understanding and preparing for the impacts of climate change on assets, markets and economies. Many climate impacts are already locked in to mid-century, so when focusing on the next few decades scenario analysis should focus on the scientific phenomenon driving uncertainty, rather than the climate policies which have a greater impact over the longer term. Four Twenty Seven's new report, Demystifying Climate Scenario Analysis for Financial Stakeholders, explores which impacts are already locked in, identifies how Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios fit into the conversation, and describes an approach to setting up scenario analysis for near-term physical climate risks.
 
Our atmosphere will continue to warm for many decades even if we stop emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow.  The oceans will continue to rise, heat waves will become more severe and droughts will intensify. For example, the most water stressed areas  are anticipated to experience reductions in dry season rainfall equivalent to the two decades surrounding the American dust bowl. This report outlines an approach called percentile-based analysis, which allows users to explore the range of potential outcomes based on climate model outputs within a single RCP.
 
Read the Report
Technical Drivers of
Climate Risk Assessments

Leveraging the Cloud for Rapid Climate Risk Assessments
"Providing location-specific risk assessments requires accessing and processing the best climate data available. Climate data poses processing challenges due to the raw file size of climate model outputs, where a single file can be hundreds of megabytes or more, and an entire dataset can be anywhere from tens of terabytes to multiple petabytes." Four Twenty Seven Senior Data Analyst, Colin Gannon, writes about leveraging Amazon Web Services (AWS) for data storage and processing.

The Next Generation of Climate Models

Forty-nine modeling organizations are working on the next generation of climate models, known as Coupled Model Intercomparison Projects, or CMIP 6. Some of these models have already been released, but others are still forthcoming. CMIP 6 explores a larger range of potential futures and released models tend to project more warming than previous climate models. Although CMIP 6 is behind schedule, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change's Sixth Assessment Report plans to incorporate these updated models into its analysis. 
Sea Level Rise - What's at Stake?

Global Vulnerability to Sea Level Rise Worse than Previously Understood
Many global coastlines are lower than previously known, meaning that hundreds of millions more people than expected are vulnerable to sea level rise, according to recent research by non-profit Climate Central. Leveraging a new digital elevation model, Climate Central found that by mid-century "land currently home to 300 million people will fall below the elevation of an average annual coastal flood." While scientists continue to explore the timing and implications around ice sheet collapse, this new research provides improved understanding of global coastal elevations and the potential for dire impacts on economies and communities. 

The space industry is particularly vulnerable to sea level rise. There is little redundancy built in to the industry and the Kennedy Space Center and Cape Canaveral Air Force Station are both exposed to significant coastal flooding. "Complex 39A is estimated to face a 14% annual risk of flooding next year and it’s projected to flood at least once a year on average during the 2060s unless additional measures are taken to protect it according to Climate Central's analysis. By 2100, parts of the launch site could experience near monthly flooding." NASA is building a 17ft high sand dune to protect the launchpads from the rising ocean, but experts wonder if this is a meaningful solution. 
Inside the Office at Four Twenty Seven

Meet Senior Software Engineer, Alix Herrmann 

Four Twenty Seven welcomes Alix, who leverages over 25 years of experience in software engineering to expand Four Twenty Seven’s climate risk scoring capabilities. Previously, Alix developed big data analytics for financial market trading at Instinet. She also has experience building neural network compilers, developing DSP-oriented mathematical libraries and creating ground-based radar signal processing pipelines.

Join the Team! Four Twenty Seven is Hiring

There are several opportunities to join Four Twenty Seven's dynamic team in offices across the U.S. and Europe. See the open positions below and visit our Careers page for more information.
  • Climate Risk Analyst with expertise in translating applied climate change science for a wide range of stakeholders
  • Regional Sales Directors (North America and United Kingdom), with extensive experience selling and supporting data products and services for large commercial, financial and government institutions
  • Director of Financial Data Systems with significant experience in the development and management of financial data processing, storage and retrieval
Upcoming Events

Join the Four Twenty Seven team at these events:

  • Dec 4 - 5 – RI New York 2019, New York, NY: Stop by Four Twenty Seven's booth to meet the team and hear Global Director of Client Services, Yoon Kim, speak about climate risk stress tests. Senior Analyst, Lindsay Ross, and Editor, Natalie Ambrosio, will host Four Twenty Seven's booth.
  • Dec 10 – Sustainatopia, Sunnyvale, CA: Natalie Ambrosio will speak on integrating physical climate risk into investment strategies.
  • Dec 9 - 12 – AGU Fall Meeting 2019, San Francisco, CA: Director of Analytics, Nik Steinberg, and Senior Data Analysts, Josh Turner and Colin Gannon, will attend.
  • Jan 6 - Jan 9 – NCSE 2020 Annual Conference, Washington, DC: Yoon Kim and Lindsay Ross will speak about cross-sector resilience-building and resilient infrastructure, respectively.
  • Jan 12 - Jan 16 – 2020 AMS Meeting, Boston, MA: Josh Turner will attend.
  • Jan 27 –  Cleantech Forum, San Francisco, CA: Natalie Ambrosio will speak.
  • Feb 10 - 12 – Americatalyst 2020: Entropy, Dallas, TX: Director of Analytics, Nik Steinberg, will speak.
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Copyright © 2019 Four Twenty Seven, All rights reserved.
Four Twenty Seven sends a newsletter focused on bringing climate intelligence into economic and financial decision-making for investors, corporations and governments. Fill in the form below to join our mailing list. As data controller, we collect your email address with your consent in order to send you our newsletter. Four Twenty Seven will never share your mailing information with anyone and you may unsubscribe at any moment. Please read our Terms and Conditions.
 

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Demystifying Climate Scenario Analysis for Financial Stakeholders

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

December 4, 2019 – 427 REPORT. Scenario analysis is an essential yet challenging component of understanding and preparing for the impacts of climate change on assets, markets and economies. When focusing on the short term, the warming and related impacts we have already committed to calls for scenarios that are decoupled from economic and policy activities and instead focus on the impacts that are already locked in. This report explores which impacts are already locked in, identifies how Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios fit into the conversation, and describes an approach to setting up scenario analysis for near-term physical climate risks.

Download the report.

As the effects of climate change increasingly threaten financial stability, investors and regulators are seeking to understand what impacts lie ahead, and calling for an increase in physical climate risk assessment and disclosure in line with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). To assess the scale of financial risk posed by physical climate change it is important to quantify risks under different climate scenarios. How will changes in extreme weather patterns, longer droughts and rising seas differ under various scenarios? Answering these questions through scenario analysis helps uncover the range of risks, allowing investors to identify assets and markets that are more likely to become stranded over time and to begin developing forward-looking resilience strategies. However, science-driven, decision-useful scenario analysis poses many challenges for businesses and financial stakeholders today, due to complex feedback loops, varying timescales, and multiple interacting factors that ultimately determine how global climate change manifests.

 

Figure 2. Distribution of daily extreme temperature changes in 2030-2040, expressed as a percent change, relative to a baseline of 1975-2005 under RCP 8.5. This map shows statistically downscaled global climate models averaged together, for this time frame and scenario. NASA Earth Exchange Global Daily Downscaled Projections statistically downscales climate model outputs to a ~25 kilometer resolution (see full details here) White areas are excluded because they lack potential for significant economic activity.

This new report, Demystifying Climate Scenario Analysis for Financial Stakeholders, explores which physical impacts are already locked in, identifies how Representative Concentration Pathway (RCP) scenarios apply, and describes an approach to setting up scenario analysis for near-term physical climate risks. Scenario analysis is often approached from the perspective of transition risk, where policy developments and greenhouse gas (GHG) emission targets are the key drivers of risk pathways over the near-term, in the next 10 to 30 years. Physical risk, however, requires a different approach.  Impacts over the coming decades are largely locked in, making the emissions scenarios less relevant. Unlike transition risk, GHG emission pathways play a minimal role in the behavior of the near-term climate and GHG emission pathways only begin to meaningfully influence global temperatures near mid-century. The uncertainty in physical climate risks in the near-term is driven by uncertainty in physical processes, rather than in policy decisions.

For organizations looking to construct physical climate risk scenarios for risk management and strategy purposes, it is critical to understand the scientific phenomena driving our plausible climate futures. This report outlines an approach called percentile-based analysis, which allows users to explore the range of potential outcomes based on climate model outputs within a single RCP. This offers a flexible, data-driven approach, suitable for portfolio-level screenings, reporting, and in some cases, direct engagement with asset managers.

Key Takeaways:

  • Quantifying climate risks under different scenarios is a key element in understanding how physical climate risks pose financial risks.
  • Scenario analysis is often approached from the perspective of transition risk, where policy developments and greenhouse gas emission targets are the key drivers of risk pathways in the next 10 to 30 years. However, physical climate impacts over the coming decades are largely locked in, so physical risk requires a different approach.
  • Even if we stopped emitting carbon dioxide tomorrow, many physical climate impacts, such as increasing temperatures, more severe droughts, and rising sea levels, would already be locked in because of the time carbon dioxide stays in the atmosphere and the time it takes the atmosphere to respond.
  • The uncertainty in how physical climate risks may manifest in the next few decades is driven by model uncertainty, which should therefore be the focus of scenario analysis for physical climate risks in the near-term.
  • Percentile-based analysis offers a flexible, data-driven approach, suitable for portfolio-level screenings, reporting, and in some cases, direct engagement with asset managers.

Download the report.

Download the press release.

 

Four Twenty Seven Opens a Tokyo Office |フォー・トゥエンティー・セブンが東京オフィスを開設

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

OCTOBER 23, 2019 – BERKELEY, CA – Four Twenty Seven announces opening of Tokyo office and hires senior country representative.

Four Twenty Seven, an affiliate of Moody’s and the leading publisher of climate data for financial markets, is pleased to announce the opening of its office in Tokyo, Japan. Four Twenty Seven’s Tokyo office opens as investors and businesses in Japan and across the Asia-Pacific region face increasing market pressure to assess and disclose the risks physical climate hazards pose to their investments.

In conjunction with the opening of its office in Tokyo, Four Twenty Seven is also pleased to announce that Toshi Matsumae will serve as its Director of Japan. Toshi brings 30 years of experience leading financial services organizations in Japan. He leverages this expertise to lead Four Twenty Seven’s effort to provide climate risk screening to investors, asset managers, banks and corporations striving to understand their risk to physical climate hazards throughout Japan.

“We’ve seen growing demand from Japanese markets over the past year for transparency around exposure to physical climate risks in corporate assets, investment portfolios and in credit portfolios,” says Emilie Mazzacurati, Four Twenty Seven’s Founder and CEO.  “Four Twenty Seven’s on-the-ground presence in Japan will allow us to bring asset-level risk data to support this demand and inform global resilience-building.”

“The opening of Four Twenty Seven’s Tokyo office comes at a time when the financial sector is calling for better integration of forward-looking climate data into decision-making,” says Toshi Matsumae, Four Twenty Seven’s Director of Japan. “I look forward to working with investors and businesses throughout Asia to better understand and serve the needs of this evolving market.”

Download the Press Release.

2019年10月23日 –カルフォルニア、バークレー拠点の フォー・トゥエンティー・セブンが東京オフィスを開設

ムーディーズの関連会社で、気候変動に関するデータを金融業界に提供する業界のリーダー的存在のフォー・トゥエンティー・セブンは、この度東京オフィスの開設を発表した。これは日本及びアジア太平洋地域の投資家及び事業主が、彼らの投資物件と運用資産に対して日増しに増大する気候変動に伴う災害リスクと、それに対処するためのリスク評価及びディスクロージャーへの市場の要望に対応したものだ。

東京オフィスの開設に伴い、フォー・トゥエンティー・セブンは、この度、松前俊顕を日本事業の代表として起用することになった。松前は金融情報サービス業界での30年余りの経験を活かし、日本の投資家、資産運用会社、銀行、あるいは一般企業が今日抱える気候変動からの物理的リスクに対する科学的な理解と対応が可能となる気候リスクスクリーニングを提供していくことになる。

フォー・トゥエンティー・セブンの創業者で社長のエミリー・マザキュラティは「この一年日本の市場からは、企業資産、運用ポートフォリオ、債券ポートフォリオの気候変動の物理的リスクへの感応度に関する透明性を求める声が日増しに拡大してきた。」とコメントしている。さらに、「日本の市場でのフォー・トゥエンティー・セブンの存在で、銘柄レベルで提供される予想リスクデータにより、こうした要望に答え、他の主要地域での事例を伝えることができる。」と語っている。

さらに松前は「この度のフォー・トゥエンティー・セブンの東京オフィス開設は、まさに今日の金融業界からの要望のタイミングにマッチしている。日本及びアジア地域にて、気候変動インパクトに対するアプローチが確立されていなかった従来の状況から、気候データと科学的な対応が統合した意思決定に導かれる一助にフォー・トゥエンティー・セブンがなれることを希望する。」と付け加えている。

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The Last Environmentalist Podcast: Climate Change Is Here. Are We Ready?

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

How does the private sector view climate change, why is this important for global climate adaptation and how does someone in this field remain motivated?  Founder & CEO, Emilie Mazzacurati, joins Josh Dorfman’s new podcast, The Last Environmentalist, to discuss these topics and much more. The conversation covers the evolving views of climate risk in the financial sector and how this awareness can translate into resilience-building.  Emilie describes near-term impacts of climate change on real estate markets, adaptation actions taken by corporations and the interacting nature of climate risk and resilience across private and public sectors.

For more detail on climate risk in real estate, read our recent analysis, Real Estate Climate Risks: How Will Europe be Impacted? For more insight on shareholder engagement, read our report, Engaging with Corporates to Build Adaptive Capacity.

Newsletter: How will climate affect Europe’s real estate & U.S. retail?

Posted on by Natalie Ambrosio

Four Twenty Seven's monthly newsletter highlights recent developments on climate risk and resilience. This month we feature analysis on climate risk in European real estate, Moody's research on credit quality and heat stress and the first climate resilience bond.
In Focus: Real Estate Climate Risk in Europe

Four Twenty Seven Analysis - Real Estate Climate Risks: How Will Europe be Impacted?
From this summer's record-breaking heat waves to storm-surge induced flooding, Europe is increasingly experiencing the impacts of climate change. Extreme events and chronic stresses have substantial impacts on real estate, by damaging individual buildings, decreasing their value and potentially leading to unusable assets. These asset-level impacts also have wider market implications.

Our latest analysis assesses the exposure of retail sites and offices across Europe to floods, sea level rise and heat stress. We find that 19% of assessed retail spaces and 16% of offices in Europe are exposed to floods and/or sea level rise, with floods presenting the highest risk for both types of asset. The analysis identifies the cities with the largest percent of facilities exposed to floods and sea level rise, and discusses the implications this exposure has for business continuity and real estate markets across the continent. 
Read the Analysis
Credit Quality in U.S. Governments Exposed to Heat Stress

Moody's Investors Service Analysis - Growing Exposure to Heat Stress Mitigated by Economic and Fiscal Strengths
Moody's new analysis overlays Four Twenty Seven's data on exposure to heat stress in U.S. governments with information on outstanding debt and credit quality, finding that 21% of outstanding debt they rate is exposed to high or very high heat stress. This exposure is concentrated in the central U.S. and Florida. The Southeast has the most debt exposed to heat stress, but this debt tends to be from larger, well-resources governments with diverse economies, which improves governments' resilience to extreme events. Bloomberg covers the report, emphasizing the potential implications of heat stress for Midwest bond issuers. Register for free to read the analysis:
Read the Report
New Principles Support Integration of Resilience into Bond Markets

CBI Releases Climate Resilience Principles 
Last Week the Climate Bond Initiative released Climate Resilience Principles, integrating forward-looking climate risk assessment and resilience considerations into bond markets. The guidance document is meant to inform investors', governments' and banks' reviews of how projects and assets contribute to a climate-resilient economy. The principles will be integrated into the Climate Bonds Certification of green bonds, signaling a valuable step toward the consistent use of resilience standards for debt projects. Four Twenty Seven is proud to have contributed to the Adaptation and Resilience Expert Group that developed the principles. 

EBRD Issues First Climate Resilience Bond
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) issued the first bond to solely finance climate resilience projects. This is the first bond to fulfill the requirements of the new Climate Resilience Principles. Craig Davies, head of climate resilience investments at the EBRD, told Environmental Finance "The climate resiliency principles that the CBI has developed are a really important landmark because they very clearly set out eligibility criteria, and some very simple but clear and robust methodologies for defining a climate-resilient investment." The EBRD's four year bond raised $700 million to finance "climate-resilient infrastructure, business and commercial operations, or agricultural and ecological systems."

The EBRD also released a consultation draft of a Framework for Climate Resilience Metrics in Financing Operations this week. The report, published jointly with other multilateral development banks and the International Development Finance Club, outlines a vocabulary to facilitate consistent discussion and measurement of resilience investment.
Global Commission on Adaptation Launches Year of Action
The Global Commission on Adaptation presented its flagship report, Adapt Now: A Global Call for Leadership on Climate Resilience this week at the United Nations Climate Summit. This report emphasizes the return on investment of climate adaptation, noting that "investing $1.8 trillion globally in five areas from 2020 to 2030 could generate $7.1 trillion in total net benefits." It focuses on early warning systems, climate-resilient infrastructure, improving dryland agriculture, mangrove protection and increasing the resilience of water resources. This kicks off the Commission's Year of Action, during which it will advance recommendations, accelerate adaptation, promote more sustainable economic development and collate findings to present at the Climate Adaptation Summit in October 2020.
The Commission's report was informed by a paper called Driving Finance Today for the Climate Resilient Society Tomorrow by the UNEP Finance Initiative and Climate Finance Advisors. It outlines financial barriers to the acceleration of adaptation investment and recommends six actions to unlock adaptation finance. These actions include accelerating climate-relevant policies, implementing climate risk management, developing adaptation metrics, building financial sector capacity, highlighting investment opportunities and leveraging public institutions to accelerate adaptation investment. 
Retailers Prepare for Physical Climate Risk
Women's apparel store, A'gaci, filed for bankruptcy in January 2018 after most of its stores were hit by hurricanes in Texas, Florida and Puerto Rico. Hurricanes can affect retail operations by causing building damage, merchandise loss and supply chain disruptions, and Hurricane Irma caused an estimated $2.8 billion loss for the sector. Retail Dive explores the implications of climate change for the retail sector at large, using Four Twenty Seven's data on retail site exposure. With over 17,000 retail facilities exposed to floods in the U.S., some businesses are beginning to prepare, reorganizing their distribution patterns and supply chains. Some retail stores, such as Home Depot, can also see increases in demand after extreme events, and will particularly stand to benefit if their facilities are resilient to climate hazards and can accommodate the associated surge in business. 

New research by a Federal Reserve Board Economist, finds that weather variability impacts retail sales. On average, sales tend to increase with temperature and decrease with rain and snowfall. Overall there is not a clear shift in shopping habits from outdoor stores to indoor venues during extreme weather, but these patterns do show regional variation, suggesting that the impacts of extreme weather events vary by region. The impact of extreme events on sales will have an impact on retail employees and local economies depending on these companies. Businesses can leverage this research, alongside data on climate risk exposure, to plan for these shifts in consumer behavior. 
Inside the Office at Four Twenty Seven

Meet Operations Coordinator, Naoko Neishi 

Four Twenty Seve welcomes Naoko, who supports senior management and works with the Operations Manager to achieve operational excellence. Naoko has over 16 years of experience as a sales assistant and office manager in the United States and Japan, working in the financial and engineering industries.
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