Wednesday, October 28, 2020
11 AM – 12 PM PT
Climate change poses a systemic risk to the U.S. financial system, concludes the recently released and first-ever comprehensive report on climate risk sponsored by a U.S. financial regulator, Managing Climate Risks to the US Financial System. Commissioner Rostin Behnam of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC), the report’s sponsor, will share key findings. Dave Jones, Director of CLEE’s Climate Risk Initiative, Divya Mankikar, Investment Manager, CalPERs, and Ilmi Granoff, Director, Sustainable Finance, Climate Works Foundation, will discuss the report’s recommendations for US financial regulators and financial institutions to urgently and decisively address climate risk. Join us for this timely discussion on climate change-related risks and opportunities for the financial sector.
Panelists:
Rostin Behnam
Commissioner, U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission
Rostin Behnam was nominated by President Trump as a Commissioner of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission (CFTC) on July 13, 2017, was unanimously confirmed by the Senate on August 3, 2017, and was sworn in to serve as a Commissioner on September 6, 2017 for term expiring in June 2021.Prior to joining the CFTC, Mr. Behnam served as senior counsel to U.S. Senator Debbie Stabenow of Michigan, Ranking Member of the Agriculture, Nutrition, and Forestry Committee. Mr. Behnam served as counsel to Senator Stabenow from 2011 through his 2017 appointment, focusing on policy and legislation related to the CFTC and the Department of Agriculture. Prior to serving Senator Stabenow, Mr. Behnam practiced law in New York City and worked at the New Jersey Office of the Attorney General. Mr. Behnam is a graduate of Georgetown University and earned a J.D. from the Syracuse University College of Law.
Ilmi Granoff
Director, Sustainable Finance, ClimateWorks Foundation
Ilmi Granoff is the Director of ClimateWorks Foundation’s Sustainable Finance Program. He is an attorney and policy expert with nearly two decades of experience in environmental law and policy, sustainable development, energy and infrastructure finance, and public-private partnerships. Previously, Ilmi headed the Green Growth Business Unit at the Overseas Development Institute, served as the Special Counsel for Climate and Environment at the African Development Bank, and practiced law in theglobal energy and infrastructure group at Freshfields. He is also currently a Visiting Professor at the University College London’s Institute for Innovation and Public Purpose. He holds graduate degrees in law, international relations, and environmental science from New York University and Yale University, and a BA from Swarthmore College.
Divya Mankikar
Investment Manager, The California Public Employees’ Retirement System
Divya Mankikar is an Investment Manager at CalPERS and provides leadership on Sustainable Investment and Climate Strategy in the office of the CEO. She is responsible for driving strategy on sustainability across the total fund. She is a co-founder of Climate Action 100+ – a global initiative supported by investors representing over $44 trillion that seeks a low-carbon transition through collaborative engagement of systemically important carbon emitters. Prior to CalPERS, Divya led the Financial Institutions business for Trucost (now S&P Global) in North America and built the forest carbon offset business in Chile for Patagonia Sur, among other roles. She holds a BA/MA from Boston University in Energy and Environmental Analysis, an International MBA focused on finance from IE Business School, in Madrid, and an MA in Law and Diplomacy focused on business and human rights law from Tufts University’s Fletcher School.
Moderator:
Dave Jones
Director, Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment | Former California Insurance Commissioner | Distinguished Fellow, ClimateWorks Foundation
Dave Jones is the Director of the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley’s Center for Law, Energy, and the Environment (CLEE) and is a Distinguished Fellow at The ClimateWorks Foundation. He served two terms as California’s Insurance Commissioner from 2011 to 2018. Jones led the Department of Insurance’s response to California’s increasingly deadly and destructive catastrophic
wildfires, including the Camp Fire in 2018. Jones is a leader and expert on climate risk and insurance regulation. From 2011 to 2018, he led the implementation of the National Association of Insurance Commissioners Climate Risk Disclosure Survey of insurers. In 2016, he launched the Climate Risk Carbon Initiative, which required insurers to disclose publicly their investments in coal, oil, gas, and utilities. He was the Founding Chairperson of the Sustainable Insurance Forum (SIF), an international consortium of insurance regulators focused on addressing climate risk. In 2018, Jones led the California Department of Insurance in undertaking the first ever “2 Degree scenario analysis” of the climate change related transition and physical risks facing the top 600 insurers’ investment portfolios. Jones is a member of the federal advisory committee which authored “Managing Climate Risks to the US Financial System”, the first comprehensive report sponsored by a US financial regulator (CFTC) on climate risks to the US financial sector.