Podcast
(Part 3) 100th Episode Special: Is Finance Ready for the Risks Ahead?
September 17, 2026
Part three of this three-part special asks what seven years of climate risk have taught finance, where the sector’s limits lie, and why there are reasons for optimism.
In the final part of our 100th episode miniseries, we turn to the financial system and the risk profession itself. Over the past seven years, banks, insurers, asset owners/managers, regulators and risk professionals have all had to grapple with a rapidly evolving understanding of climate and nature risk.
The financial sector has developed new tools, products and approaches to climate and nature risk. But major challenges remain, including misaligned incentives, imperfect models, fragmented data and the difficulty of capturing risks that cascade across interconnected systems.
Drawing on some of the most memorable conversations from the podcast, we explore:
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How financial institutions are embedding climate risk into decision making, and how far finance can realistically drive the transition;
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What seven years of modelling, scenario analysis and data have taught us about the strengths and limitations of the tools we rely on;
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And why innovation, systems thinking and the growing sophistication of the risk profession provide reasons for optimism.
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To find out more about the Sustainability and Climate Risk (SCR®) Certificate, follow this link: https://www.garp.org/scr
For more information on climate risk, visit GARP’s Global Sustainability and Climate Risk Resource Centre: https://www.garp.org/sustainability-climate
If you have any questions, thoughts, or feedback regarding this podcast series, we would love to hear from you at: climateriskpodcast@garp.com
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Today’s Speakers
Jo Paisley, President of the GARP Risk Institute
Jo Paisley is President of the GARP Risk Institute, the thought leadership arm of the Global Association of Risk Professionals (GARP). Set up in early 2018, the Institute now focuses on climate and nature risk management thought leadership. Her career began at the Bank of England where she worked in a variety of roles, across macroeconomics, statistics, supervision and risk. Her last role was as a Director of the Supervisory Risk Specialists Division within the Prudential Regulation Authority, where she was heavily involved in the design and execution of the UK’s first concurrent stress test in 2014. Prior to joining GARP, she worked as HSBC’s Global Head of Stress Testing.
Dr. Maxine Nelson, Senior Vice President at the GARP Risk Institute
Dr. Maxine Nelson is a Senior Vice President at the GARP Risk Institute, GARP’s research and thought leadership arm, where she focusses on climate- and nature-related financial risk management. She has extensive experience in risk, capital and regulation gained from a wide-ranging variety of roles, including Global Head of Wholesale Risk Analytics and Head of Capital Planning at HSBC, significantly expanding counterparty credit risk management at the UK Financial Services Authority during the last financial crisis, leading the credit risk team at KPMG London, senior credit risk consultant at Oliver Wyman, and embedding operational risk analytics globally at National Australia Bank. Maxine has a degree in mechanical engineering and a PhD about how best to apply probability theory to real world problems.
