CLIMACT Seminar Series - Linda Mhalla & Eric Jondeau
The CLIMACT seminar series “How to move forward and act on climate change” is an interactive online event. It takes place twice a month, every second Monday during your lunch break, with two new speakers. Each episode aims to strengthen the dialogue and collaboration between key UNIL and EPFL scientists, swiss politicians, entrepreneurs and various actors from the civil society, through collective reflection. A wide range of climate change-related topics will be discussed, integrating perspectives from all sectors and academic disciplines in order to generate new leads and initiatives towards systemic solutions. Participants are welcome to take part in the discussion in English or French.
Zoom link: epfl.zoom.us/j/63821341998
Climate-related disasters and death toll
Presented by Linda Mhalla I Senior researcher I HEC Lausanne, UNIL
In this presentation, Linda Mhalla will look at the consequences of climate change and economic development on the regional death toll relying on adequate statistical models tailored for extreme events. This study, combined with the “Shared Socioeconomic Pathways” elaborated by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, allows to project the death toll for the different types of climate disasters and the different regions in the world. Its framework illustrates how policy decisions can help reduce the impact of climate change on the death toll and highlights that a shift towards a more sustainable economic model would considerably lower the number of deaths due to climate disasters.
How to decarbonize a portfolio?
Presented by Eric Jondeau I Professor of Finance I HEC Lausanne, UNIL
In this presentation, Eric Jondeau will describe how a large passive investor can construct a portfolio with a decreasing carbon footprint, with a trajectory of carbon emissions consistent with the Paris Agreement. Since the distribution of firms’ carbon intensity is very skewed, excluding a small fraction of highly polluting firms can massively reduce the carbon footprint of a corporate stocks’ portfolio. It requires to identify the worst polluters globally, exclude them from the portfolio, and reallocate the proceeds so as to keep sectoral and regional exposures similar to those of the business-as-usual reference portfolio. This approach limits divestment from emerging countries and from energy firms and utilities.
CLIMACT