Several University of Maryland Researchers Meet at Smith to Talk Climate Finance

Supply chain risks from weather and climate, financing infrastructure risk reduction, and how measurement affects management when it comes to climate reporting were among the topics discussed at the Smith School on October 27 and 28, 2022. Roughly 30 participants, including University of Maryland professors, students, and representatives from financial institutions like the World Bank, T. Rowe Price, and PricewaterhouseCoopers were in attendance. 

“This set of Climate Finance Workshops was designed to build networks between University of Maryland researchers, including climate scientists, financial economists, and other researchers,” says Russ Wermers, the Paul J. Cinquegrana ’63 Endowed Chair in Finance and the director of the Smith School’s Center for Financial Policy. He and the Chair of the university’s Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Science, Sumant Nigam welcomed the attendees to one and a half days of workshops last Thursday.

This time last year, top regulators warned climate change is an “emerging threat” to the stability of the U.S. financial system. That threat has much to do with why this meeting of the minds on climate finance came to be at Smith. Wermers says, “Smith School faculty contributed to seven workshops over the one and half days of this event.” They were:

• Investment Management and Climate Disclosures
• Climate Reporting by Public and Private Corporations
• The Interaction of Firms with Regulators with Respect to Climate Change
• Assessing Freddie Mac’s Mortgage Exposure to Climate Change
• Supply Chain Risks from Climate Change
• Machine Learning Tools to Understand Financial Markets in the Context of Climate Change and Other Risks
• Educating Students to Prepare them for Future Careers that Involve Climate Finance

The end goal of the workshops was to hold an even bigger, similar event during the upcoming spring semester. More may be revealed concerning that in the next month or two.