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California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission 

CDIAC PRESENTS: A RECAST OF THE CDIAC PRE-CONFERENCE TO THE BOND BUYER 2020 CALIFORNIA PUBLIC FINANCE CONFERENCE

Webinar

October 5, 2020

 

Webinar Replay

Note: The complete program including, replays, transcripts, and slides are available in the CDIAC Education Portal. Registration required but materials are free.
 

The municipal market has the expectation that issuers will give investors the information they need to make prudent investment decisions. Recent events and market volatility have accelerated the demand for issuer disclosure on how external impacts, such as climate change, can translate to investment risk as well as how issuers are mitigating these risks. Issuers are faced with reconciling how to account for and incorporate these risks in their financial disclosures. This dilemma is exacerbated by the unprecedented and dynamic nature of this topic, as it makes it difficult to discern what information is accurate, relevant, and “material” for the investor. Join us in this two-part series where we will discuss investor expectations for climate change disclosure and how issuers are contending with these expectations.

Session 1 | Market Expectation for Climate Change Disclosure

This discussion will explore the market’s perspective of how climate is shaping credit quality, how investors are analyzing investment risks related to climate change, how an issuer should address climate change in their disclosures, and how market expectations have evolved over time.

Moderator: Robert Berry, Executive Director, CDIAC
Margaret Backstrom, Managing Director, Morgan Stanley
Kate Gordon, Director, Governor’s Office of Planning and Research | Senior Policy Advisor to the Governor on Climate
Jennifer Poree, Analytical Manager and Head of Municipal Cooperative Utilities, S&P Global Ratings
Sarah Wilson, Senior Director, Responsible Investing, Nuveen

Session 2 | The State of Climate Change Disclosure: Issuer Approaches and Practices

This session will explain the fundamental legal requirements for disclosing climate risk, present new CDIAC research on the climate disclosure practices of California enterprise issuers and discuss strategies that some issuers have used to model best practices for disclosure of climate risk.

Moderator: Richard Freund, Sustainable Infrastructure Manager, CDP
Michael Brown, Environmental Finance Manager, San Francisco Public Utilities Commission
Kelly Joy, Senior Research Specialist, CDIAC
Lakshmi Kommi, Director of Debt Management, City of San Diego
Rudy Salo, Partner, Nixon Peabody

Series Resources

Presentation Materials

Session 1 | Market Expectation for Climate Change Disclosure

Session 2 | The State of Climate Change Disclosure: Issuer Approaches and Practices
CDIAC Resources

Climate Change Disclosure Among California Enterprise Issuers Report, October 2020
A report that features an original CDIAC study of disclosure practices of climate risk from 171 unique enterprise issuers over a three-year period

Green Bonds Series Resources
Educational publications, trainings, and supplementary resources related to green bonds and other topics related to climate change and ESG issuance.
Cal-Adapt

Cal-Adapt Website is a source of online tools, data, and resources related to climate change in California. New website features and data sources are added on an ongoing basis.
California Department of Finance

  • California Climate Investment Framework
    Governor Newsom and the California Department of Finance released the California Climate Investment Framework in September 2020, which integrates climate risk strategies of the state’s three largest pension funds into a unified statewide approach. This framework was released in response to the Governor’s 2019 climate executive order N-19-19.
Governor’s Office of Planning and Research / Integrated Climate Adaptation and Resiliency Program (ICARP)

Established the Adaptation Clearing House, which serves as a centralized source of information and resources to assist decision-makers at the state, tribal, regional, and local levels when planning for and implementing climate adaptation and resiliency efforts across California. They have Tools, Datasets, and Research to support California planners and decision makers. Research most applicable to this webinar series include:
California Natural Resources Agency

State of California Sea-Level Rise Guidance: 2018 Update
A report from the California Natural Resources Agency and California Ocean Protection Council published in 2018 that provides peer-reviewed methodology created by several climate scientists for how governments can assess risks from sea-level rise to their areas.
California Public Employees’ Retirement System (CalPERS)

CalPERS’ Investment Strategy on Climate Change
First report in response to the Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD)

Physical Risks of Climate Change
A recently published framework for climate change disclosure that formed part of the basis of the rubric used in the CDIAC study of climate change disclosure among California enterprise issuers.

Contact Information

If you have questions about this program, please contact CDIAC at CDIACEducation@treasurer.ca.gov.

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