California Debt and Investment Advisory Commission

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


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Register for Replay Through Education Portal | Slides

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

Slides

CDIAC Resources

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)

CDP

  • Cities at Risk
    A web-based report published by CDP about the pressures from climate change faced by cities across the globe, and what this means for governments and citizens.
  • CDP Open Data Portal
    A portal of publicly-available data from cities, states, and other regions that disclose through CDP.

Chartered Professional Accountants of Canada (CPA Canada)

Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA)

  • National Risk Index
    Dataset and online tool to help illustrate the United States communities most at risk for 18 natural hazards. 

Government Finance Officers Association (GFOA)

Market Risk Advisory Committee of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission

  • Managing Climate Risk in the U.S. Financial System, September 2020
    Report of the Climate-related Market Risk Subcommittee of the U.S. Commodity Futures Trading Commission that details the risk climate change poses to the stability of the U.S. financial system and the U.S. economy.

Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI)

  • The California Responsible Investment Roadmap, September 29, 2020
    A collaboration between the PRI and the Climate Risk Initiative at UC Berkeley School of Law’s Center for Law, Energy & the Environment (CLEE). It draws on interviews with stakeholders and experts in California, including state policymakers and financial regulators, fiduciaries, and asset owners (representing both the public and private sectors) who already integrate ESG factors into their decision-making.

Stanford Law School, Steyer-Taylor Center for Energy Policy and Finance

Sustainability Accounting Standards Board (SASB)

  • TCFD Implementation Guide, May 2019
    A SASB report about how to use the SASB standards and CDSB framework to “enhance climate-related financial disclosures in mainstream reporting.”
  • Converging on Climate Risk: CDSB, the SASB, and the TCFD, September 2017
    A SASB report published in September 2017 about the alignment between three different approaches and frameworks used to disclose risks related to climate change.

Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD)

CDIAC Information

If you have any questions regarding this program or would like to suggest resources, please contact CDIACEducation@treasurer.ca.gov.

Many of these organizations, companies, and professionals are regular and valued contributors to the fulfillment of CDIAC’s educational mission; however, CDIAC does not endorse any particular private company. In addition, the information presented and opinions expressed in the resources and content provided is solely that of the professionals and organizations cited. Resources are provided on this page as a courtesy, and CDIAC does not maintain or validate information provided by external organizations.