Climate change is one of the major issues of our time, and the (hopeful) transition to a more climate-friendly economy presents both risks and opportunities for investors. Thus, many savvy investors are considering a company’s carbon footprint in their bottom-up company analysis. However, more than 80% of returns and risk over a longer (10+ year) time horizon are attributable to the strategic asset allocation, ie. how much to be invested broadly in certain countries and sectors, rather than in which specific companies. Therefore, long-term investors are considering climate change in their overall economic assumptions that drive their asset allocation decisions.

In its 2019 annual Financial System Review the Bank of Canada explicitly addressed climate change for the first time, listing it as one of the 6 major vulnerabilities in the Canadian financial system. In the report it cites that insured damage to property and infrastructure in Canada averaged about $1.7 billion per year from 2008 to 2017, up from $200 million per year from 1983 to 1992.  Of course, climate change doesn’t recognize international borders, and the United States has experienced record-level destruction from hurricanes, cyclones, and wildfires in recent years.  According to Boston-based risk modeling firm AIR Worldwide, a

The fight against climate change can feel daunting at times, with economics and regulation providing various obstacles to progress. However, the power sector shows encouraging signs. The cost of electricity generation, including operating expenses and capital expenses, over a plant’s lifetime is now lower for solar and wind power than coal, according to The Economist. Regulators set rates for electricity at a level that covers utility companies’ costs (fuel inputs, for example) and provides a regulated return on capital invested (infrastructure); in the United States this regulated return is about 10 per cent.The varying prices of fuel inputs are simply

Last October The UN Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report saying we must cut global carbon emissions in half by 2030 to avoid catastrophic consequences. Policymakers, with some notable exceptions, are starting to mobilize with growing support for a “Green New Deal.” Business leaders are also beginning to speak up, talking about the private sector’s responsibility to take the lead in driving towards a “new green” or “circular” economy. However, cutting emissions is only one part of the task at hand. The world’s demand for energy is increasing as populations grow, and hundreds of millions enter the middle