(Newsletter #3) Climate and Finance: is it now, or right now?

This month, our professors take a stand: the essential transitions in our economies and societies cannot be made without the financial sector.

But why is it a two-way street? What role are researchers – and in particular those at EDHEC – already playing? What would a genuine sustainable finance look like, and why are education, research and collaboration the pillars of it?

EDHEC Business School is committed to actively contributing to this transformation. Most of the articles and interviews below were originally published in our Mag #14 (Dec. 2023), where the whole community is represented. Don't hesitate to have a look!

Up next, we’ll talk about our individual and collective vulnerabilities. If these topics pique your curiosity, and if you’re not already following us, please subscribe here.

To browse this issue on LinkedIn, follow this link.

Happy reading!

Noël Amenc: « We provide finance decision-makers not only with research results but also with accurate tools and concrete solutions »

An interview with Noël Amenc – EDHEC Associate Professor and Climate Policy Coordinator EDHEC-Risk Climate, Scientific Infra, Scientific Portfolio

For over 20 years, EDHEC has been highly recognized in the finance field, both in terms of research and teaching. It provides finance and industry players with original scientific tools and qualitative advice to help them integrate crucial climate change and sustainability issues into their decisions. Through several examples of research work, Noël Amenc explains how our school has an impact on the real economy, notably through our different leading research institutes, illustrating the priority given to sustainability issues: EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute; EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Assets Research Institute and EDHEC Scientific Portfolio… read this interview

Tackling greenwashing in the classroom and beyond

By Gianfranco Gianfrate – EDHEC Professor, EDHEC-Risk Climate Research Director

How companies make decisions, their underlying motivations and power struggles, and how they deal with stakeholders - which can be communities, countries and even the environment as a whole - are key to understanding some of today's heated debates. For Gianfranco Gianfrate, as “greenwashing is something we think we all understand [though] we don’t really have a definition”, we need to develop better screening and reporting frameworks. He explains why and how he thinks the move towards quantifying environmental impact of organizations over the next decade will lead to a fundamental change… read this article

Frédéric Blanc-Brude (EDHECinfra): “Extreme Climate risks for investors in infrastructure are enormous and largely remain unrecognise, but today they can be measured thanks to EDHEC research”

An interview with Frédéric Blanc-Brude – EDHEC Infrastructure & Private Assets Research Institute Director

Over the past few decades, institutional investors have increasingly allocated capital to unlisted infrastructures, seen as backbones of our economies, and will have to keep on doing so if we want to move quickly and massively to low carbon models. But are they really and accurately aware of the threats posed by climate change to infrastructure and, consequently, to their own investments? In this interview, Frédéric Blanc-Brude presents the pioneering study "Highway to Hell" which he has just published with five other researchers (Dec. 2023). It highlights that infrastructure investors could lose up to 600 billion dollars by 2050 due to transition risks and as large as 50% of certain portfolios due to physical risk… read this interview

Why EDHEC Business School is a major player in Sustainable Finance

With insights from Noël Amenc, Frédéric Blanc-Brude, Frédéric Ducoulombier, Emmanuel Jurczenko & Emmanuel Metais

Facing colossal investment needs to address climate change and ensure sustainable and inclusive development of the planet, governments have voiced high expectations for the financial sector. At the same time, an increasing share of the population expects investment decisions to integrate environmental and social dimensions. There is still a long way to go to building sustainable finance. Over the last twenty years, through its research and teaching in asset management notably, EDHEC has become an important reference for finance professionals globally. The school has now a central role to play in fully developing and harnessing the power that finance can have in the world’s sustainable transformation… read this article

Meet Riccardo Rebonato, a fusion of science and finance

"As EDHEC Professor and Scientific Director of the EDHEC-Risk Climate Impact Institute, Riccardo Rebonato is responsible for finding innovative but practical ways of tackling the greatest challenge of our age. His work at EDHEC and the Institute is the culmination of a lifetime spent bringing together the skills, knowledge and experience he believes are needed to tackle climate change. Indeed, with an original career and an impressive list of (various) publications, he is no stranger to thinking ‘outside the box’ ”… read this portrait

How can financial tools help companies to innovate responsibly and create value for stakeholders?

By Teodor Dyakov - EDHEC Associate Professor, EDHEC-Risk Climate Affiliate member

A sustainable business seeks to generate value not only for its shareholders, but also for its stakeholders – employees, consumers, suppliers, the environment, local communities, etc.
Therefore, businesses need to understand where their core expertise and competitive advantage lies, and how to use them to drive innovation and long-term increases in the value of their key stakeholders. Sustainable finance is difficult to understand but it is rich in tools that can help companies innovate… if applied correctly. In this article, Teodor Dyakov sheds light on this question, on the role of finance in making businesses more sustainable and the way EDHEC fits in this transition… read this article

Frédéric Ducoulombier: « The double-materiality serves both investors and civil society »

An interview with Frédéric Ducoulombier – EDHEC-Risk Climate Director

2023 was the year when sustainability standards became mainstream and a fierce debate on ‘materiality’ made it into the pages of reference newspapers. In this interview, Frédéric Ducoulombier responds to the attacks on the ‘double materiality’ concept at the heart of the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS). Unlike the traditional ‘financial materiality’ concept, the European approach requires companies to disclose not only any material financial risk or opportunity arising in relation to sustainability matters, but also any material sustainability impact of their activities … read this interview

Meet Dominic O’Kane, a master of algorithms using mathematics to decipher the world (and finance)

“Dominic O’Kane got in touch with EDHEC through an industry contact. He was invited to give a lecture, and then was hired as an Affiliated Professor of Finance in 2007. “I had come to really enjoy teaching finance having taught at Oxford University and the London Business School. I enjoyed working on publications on how to better educate clients about the risks of derivatives markets and how to make derivatives markets safer. I missed the world of academia, and I thought it was time to return to it.” As the EDHEC role was part-time, Dominic also worked as a consulting and testifying expert in financial litigation disputes”… read this portrait

To read the previous issues of the #EDHECVox newsletter :

• (#2) Circular economy: Why are we wasting time? - follow this link
• (#1) Greener, chattier, more connected… How do companies address "new" customers? - follow this link