Upcoming Webinar: Empirical Geometric Models of Groundwater Inundation as a Consequence of Sea Level Rise
Please join us for a webinar next Thursday (31st March) by Dr Simon Cox, GNS Science Structural Geologist and CEFGroup/ STRAND Marsden Project team member.
- Date and Time: Thursday the 31st of March, 11:00am NZDT
- Presentation Title: Empirical Geometric Models of Groundwater Inundation as a Consequence of Sea Level Rise
- Speaker: Dr Simon Cox
- Livestream via Microsoft Team Meeting: Click HERE
Abstract:
The impacts of sea-level rise include rising shallow groundwater in coastal areas, which produces cascading and cumulative hazards. Subsurface stormwater and wastewater networks are vulnerable and potentially prone to system collapse. Groundwater infiltration reduces network capacity and can result in sewerage overflows, with associated public-health and environmental costs. With large infrastructure redesign/renewals in mind or the possibility of managed retreat, we need to quantify the shallow groundwater hazard to inform and optimise investment decisions throughout New Zealand. Understanding the intensity and spatial reach of hazards, and how various hazards interplay, is becoming an expectation for planning and mitigation. But shallow groundwater is a largely unseen, poorly-understood hazard. A commonly adopted ‘quick’ estimate of the hazard faced by communities is to assume that groundwater levels will equilibrate locally with sea level. Such ‘bathtub’ models can be generated quickly from digital terrain models, using GIS techniques to provide first-order approximations of land elevation relative to sea level. But while useful for non-specific, generalised desktop assessments of regional asset exposure, the approach reflects little of the principles of groundwater systems and the dynamics of subsurface flow.
Groundwater surfaces tend to be gently sloped, rather than flat, with humps, ridges and hollows caused by the natural flow system and hydrogeology, and its interplay with urban development, drainage, stormwater systems and other engineering features. Here the concept of empirical geometric models is introduced to provide a compromise between computationally expensive numerical solutions and the spatial precision required for probabilistic hazard assessment. Empirical geometric models are developed using the observed shape and absolute position of groundwater-surface, assuming it will rise with sea level. As such, the subtle variations in hydraulic gradient and shape of the water table are in future expected to be, on average, the same as at present. By simplifying variables and controlling processes into a single parameter, the geometric models contain implicit assumptions and require many caveats. But incorporating natural observations and variability can be done relatively quickly over wide areas and has the potential to improve both spatial and temporal understanding of shallow coastal groundwater and hazards nationwide.
New Research: In Holdings We Trust: Uncovering the ESG Fund Lemons
Sustainable investing is largely driven by expected value, not ethical values, a new report from University of Otago’s Climate and Energy Finance Group (CEFGroup) has found.
A copy of the industry report can be found here: Australasian Fund Manager ESG Practices
A copy of the working paper could be found via the following link: In Holdings We Trust: Uncovering the ESG Fund Lemons
Stakeholder demand for socially responsible investment has led to a rise in investment funds adopting responsible investment practices, including environmental, social and governance (ESG) practices. However, despite sustainable investing sweeping the industry, it is often unclear what fund managers are actually doing to invest more sustainably.
The CEFGroup’s latest industry report – in partnership with Saturn Advice, MyFiduciary and Morningstar – surveyed asset managers of global equity funds available to Australasian investors to understand how they integrate sustainable practices within the investment decision-making process. Along with many new insights, the report found:
-
Responsible investing by fund managers is driven mainly by performance value and attracting investors, not ethical values and responsibilities.
-
Only half of the asset managers surveyed reported their portfolios’ carbon intensity, a basic measure of carbon risk in an investment portfolio, which is surprising as portfolio carbon intensity should be the easiest portfolio climate metric to provide in terms of data availability. This is particularly startling as climate change was the most important issue according to the survey.
-
Of those that did report these metrics, around half underreported and many did so by a large extent.
Saturn Advice General Manager Peter Dine says there is growing evidence that companies who embed ESG considerations into their decision-making are likely to achieve superior long-term financial performance, compared to those that don’t. This report provides insight into where the fund management industry is currently at on ESG practices and helps with questions people should ask managers about their sustainability practices, he says.
MyFiduciary Principal Chris Douglas agrees and says studies like this help to put a spotlight on how investors and fund managers are responding to growing sustainability demands. “In-depth analysis like this helps to lift the level of debate within the industry and inform investors and fund managers on good practice and the spectrum of outcomes from the leaders to the laggards,” he says.
The results are based on a Master of Finance thesis from University of Otago student Lachie McLean, which looks at managers’ actual portfolio holdings.
EMMI Co-Founder outlines carbon data problems and CEFGroup partnership
In a recent blog post, EMMI Co-Founder, Ben McNeil, outlines carbon data problems and CEFGroup partnership.
Ben says he “reached out to CEFGroup immediately” after reading the paper written by CEFGroup STRAND Marsden Postdoctoral Fellow Quyen Nguyen and CEFGroup Director Ivan Diaz-Rainey, which uses a machine-learning approach to predict corporate carbon emissions.
“We have been fortunate to collaborate to expand their techniques allowing better predictive models that help us solve some of the carbon data challenges”, he says.
For more information, visit The EMMI Blog – Can we fix the carbon data problem for investors?
CEFGroup Director Becomes Co-Chair of GBSN Sustainable Finance & ESG Investment Impact Community
CEFGroup Director, Ivan Diaz-Rainey, together with Aditya Singh (Director, Athena School of Management) and Viviane Torinelli (Co-Founder, BRASFI), founded and chair the Global Business School Network (GBSN) for Sustainable Finance & ESG Investment Impact Community.
The Impact Community is a forum for educators interested in taking sustainable finance in the global south to the next level. This group of institutions commit to increase awareness and support from a North to South perspective and to increase cooperation from a South to South perspective. The Impact Community aims to start this dialogue by involving business schools from across the world and with organizations that have domain expertise.
Aditya Singh is the Chair of the Impact Community with Ivan Diaz-Rainey and Viviane Torinelli supporting as Co-Chairs. Academics from business schools across the globe are invited to join the Impact Community. Click HERE to sign up.
For more information, visit the GBSN Impact Community’s webpage.
RBNZ Masterclass in Climate Finance
Reserve Bank of New Zealand hosted a Masterclass in Climate Finance for staff from agencies in the Council of Financial Regulators delivered by CEFGroup Director Ivan Diaz-Rainey.
In this session, Ivan gave the audience some background on climate change, the international context including the growing role of central banks, climate risks classifications, barriers to implementation, and approaches and policies to help solve these barriers.
The Masterclass provided a great chance for the audience, especially policymakers, to learn more about climate finance, the challenges in front of us, and how Aotearoa New Zealand can finance climate mitigation and adaptation.
Climate Finance Taxonomies for Aotearoa
CEFGroup Director Ivan Diaz-Rainey presented to the Council of Financial Regulators Climate Korero Session on green taxonomies, hosted by the Reserve Bank of New Zealand. More details below:
CEFGroup 2022 Job Market Candidate
CEFGroup is pleased to promote our 2022 Ph.D. job market candidate, Iftekhar Ahmed (expected submission: July 2022). Iftekhar’s Ph.D. thesis looks at climate risks in the microfinance industry and develops a novel systemically important index to identify Too-Big-To-Fail microfinance institutions (MFIs). His areas of interest include climate finance, sustainable finance, microfinance, corporate finance, and financial markets and institutions. Iftekhar’s intellectual curiosity drives his passion to use innovative economic modelling and quantitative analysis to support high-quality, evidence-based policy advice. To find out more about Iftekhar’s research and experience, visit Iftekhar’s personal website.
CEFGroup New Paper on Modelling Climate Finance Risks
CEFGroup STRAND Marsden Postdoctoral Fellow Quyen Nguyen brings with her not only a BRAND-NEW paper in sustainable and climate finance, but also the FIRST paper to be taught on modelling climate finance risks in Australasia. The paper is a natural complement to our existing papers in this area, namely, FINC399 Sustainable Investing (introduces students to sustainable finance and explores how investors deal with sustainability issues at a portfolio level) and FINC420 Climate and Energy Finance (more narrowly focused on the analysis of individual firms in the context of climate change and energy transition). It aims to train students in state-of-the-art advanced data and modelling techniques in climate finance risk analysis, and prepare students with an end-to-end hands-on learning experience, getting them to be familiar with core data extracting and processing tools (Python, ArcGIS), climate finance datasets (IPCC scenarios, energy & power plant mix data, geospatial data, financial data), before moving on to advanced forward-looking modelling skills (climate stress testing and geospatial modelling).
The course will be delivered in Semester 2, 2022. For more information, visit FINC498 Advanced Modelling of Climate Finance Risks.
For all our courses, Interest Only Enrolments (IOE) are possible if prerequisites are met. For more information on the prerequisites for our three courses, see the attached. For more information on IOE, see the Interest Only Enrolment page.
STRAND Marsden Project Receives Media Attention
CEFGroup’s STRAND Marsden project has been covered in a recent article by Newsroom.
Along with a team from a broad range of disciplines such as finance, real estate, climatology, and hydrogeology, CEFGroup Director Ivan Diaz-Rainey and STRAND Marsden Postdoctoral Fellow Quyen Nguyen have launched an investigation into the link between house prices and climate risk.
For more information, visit: Climate Change Pulls Strings on Coastal Property Values and the STRAND Marsden Fund Project home page.
Upcoming Webinar: AFAANZ Climate Change and Financial Reporting Insight Webinar
CEFGroup Theme Leader, Professor David Lont, is co-organising the Climate Change and Financial Reporting Insight Webinar, featuring a keynote address by Professor Naomi Soderstrom (University of Melbourne), and two panel sessions:
-
Policymakers’ perspectives on the challenges of reporting on climate change risk
-
Users’ and Preparers’ perspectives on disclosures on climate change risk
-
-
Speakers: Jacqui Macalister (Bank of New Zealand), Rickey Ward (JBWere), and Paul Tiernan (Woodside Energy)
-
-
The webinar will be held on Wednesday 16th February from 2:00pm to 5:30pm, New Zealand Time. Register here to ensure a spot.
FRIG Insight Session – Climate Change and Financial Reporting Programme
