Bridging the Gap between Climate Science and Risk Management

Hear from David Schimel and Pooja Khosla of Entelligent, as we explore the intersection of climate science and risk management.

For over 30 years, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, has reported on the future physical impacts of climate change, based on the best available science. But these predictions have tended to underplay the likelihood of extreme risks. This is in part because scientists have focused more on the centre of the distribution rather than the extremes, which is likely to have been in part a reaction against an increasingly politicised level of scrutiny.

However, for risk professionals, the tails of the distribution are of particular importance. They also need also to think about the nature of the transition, which will depend on a number of factors, such as technological improvements and policy changes. Here, we have also seen systematic errors – for example, just consider the errors in forecasting the cost of solar energy.

So in today’s episode, we’ll take a closer look at the balance of these errors on the physical and transition side.  We’ll explore the intersection of climate science and risk management, including:

• How the politicization of climate change has shaped how climate scientists communicate its risks and opportunities.

• The challenge of translating climate science into actionable financial risk data; and

• How ignoring the less likely impacts of climate change can lead to greater losses and missed opportunities.

Find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR^®) Certificate

For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Center

If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com


Links from today’s discussion:

• Entelligent homepage: https://www.entelligent.com/

• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s Fourth Assessment Report: https://www.ipcc.ch/assessment-report/ar4/

• NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory: https://www.jpl.nasa.gov/

• Article: Do Two Climate Wrongs Make a Right? By David Schimel and Charles Miller: https://www.entelligent.com/news-and-perspective/do-two-climate-wrongs-make-a-right/

Speakers' Bios

David Schimel, Co-Founder and Chairman of the Board at Entelligent, and Senior Research Scientist at NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory

Dave is the Co-Founder and Chairman of Entelligent, and a Senior Research Scientist at NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory. He has a 30-plus-year career working in top research positions and leadership roles in carbon cycle climate interactions and global climate modelling. Dave was a Convening Lead Author for the IPCC's Fourth Assessment Report, for which it was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize in 2007. In 2012, he was named a Fellow of the Ecological Society of America. 

Pooja Khosla, Chief Innovation Office, Entelligent

Pooja is the Chief Innovation Officer of Entelligent, and along with Dave, invented the company’s patented Smart Climate^® technology. A data scientist and econometrician, Pooja’s 15-year career has focused on predictive modelling, microfinance, and the design of investment tools.  She has a Ph.D. in Economics from the University of Colorado Boulder, and speaks and writes extensively on climate risk and investment.