Can Financial Engineering Save The Planet?
Webinar
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Background: The transformation of the economy to net zero is proceeding much too slowly. Globally, trillions of dollars of additional low-carbon investments are needed every year -- multiples of the current level of investment.
Meanwhile governments are providing $7 trillion of annual subsidies to support fossil fuel usage. These enormous subsidies create a hurricane force headwind that prevents progress in decarbonizing the global economy.
A carbon-linked bond is a simple financial instrument that would allow governments to create a credible time path in which to eliminate those subsidies and a globally harmonized forward curve of carbon prices. Together they would incentivize private capital markets to quickly fund the necessary transformation.
Speaker:
Robert Litterman is a founding partner of Kepos Capital; a New York City based investment firm, and the Chairman of the Kepos Capital Risk Committee. Prior to joining Kepos Capital in 2010, Dr Litterman enjoyed a 23-year career at Goldman Sachs & Co., where he served in research, risk management, investments and thought leadership roles. He oversaw the Quantitative Investment Strategies Group in the Asset Management division.
Dr Litterman was named a partner of Goldman Sachs in 1994 and became head of the firm-wide risk function; prior to that role, he was co-head of the Fixed Income Research and Model Development Group with Fischer Black. During his tenure at Goldman, Dr Litterman researched and published a number of ground breaking papers in asset allocation and risk management. He is the co-developer of the Black-Litterman Global Asset Allocation Model, a key tool in investment management, and has co-authored books including The Practice of Risk Management and Modern Investment Management: An Equilibrium Approach (Wiley & Co.).
Dr Litterman earned a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Minnesota and a B.S. in Human Biology from Stanford University. He was inducted into Risk Magazine's Risk Management Hall of Fame and named the 2013 Risk Manager of the Year by the Global Association of Risk Professionals. In 2012, he was the inaugural recipient of the S. Donald Sussman Fellowship at MIT's Sloan School of Management. In 2008, Dr Litterman received the Nicholas Molodovsky Award from the CFA Institute Board as well as the International Association of Financial Engineers/SunGard Financial Engineer of the Year Award.
Dr Litterman served on a number of boards, including Commonfund, where he was elected Chair in 2014, Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), Resources for the Future RFF), and the Sloan Foundation. Dr Litterman chaired the CFTC Climate-Related Market Risk Subcommittee, which published its report, “Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System,” in September 2020, and served on the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology working group on Extreme Weather, which published its report in April 2023.
Dr Litterman is currently on the board of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, Ceres, World Wildlife Fund, Woodwell Climate Research Center, the Climate Leadership Council (CLC), where he serves as co-chair of the Board and the Niskanen Center, which he chairs the board, UCAR (University Corporation for Atmospheric Research), and the Climate-related Financial Risk Advisory Committee (CFRAC) of the Financial Stability Oversight Council.
Speaker(s):
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Robert Litterman
Founding Partner
Kepos Capital
Chairman:
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Simon Mills
Senior Associate
Z/Yen Group