Not sure where to start? Try the Editor’s choice.
The IFoA formed a Resources and Environment Board some years ago. Much of its work relates to climate issues. Recently, the board has been renamed the Sustainability Board. The weekly Sustainable Finance Community updates are a useful resource. Please contact sustainablefinancecommunity@gmail.com to join the distribution list.
In May 2017 the IFoA issued a Risk Alert on climate, drawing actuaries’ attention to a risk that is central, and would become increasingly so, to many actuaries’ work. Climate change is covered in the JFAR Risk Perspective 2019/20 published by the Joint Forum on Actuarial Regulation.
Climate Change for Actuaries is an introduction to the topic, first published in March 2019 and revised in July 2020. Several practical guides have been issued for Life actuaries, GI practitioners and Actuaries working in DC Pensions.
Climate change was the topic for the first issue of the Intergenerational Fairness Bulletin.
Climate scenario analysis for pension schemes is covered in A UK case study and the accompanying An illustration of potential long-term economic & financial market impacts.
Three papers cover Sponsor Covenant Assessments, Mortality, and Financial Assumptions.
Reporting Practices analyses climate risk reporting by UK insurers and pension schemes.
The risk of climate ruin addresses the issue: How large a risk is society prepared to run with the climate system?
A user guide to climate-related financial disclosures was produced by the IFoA working with the Institute of Environmental Management & Assessment (IEMA). The guide seeks to assist users of financial disclosures to make the best use of them. The Q&A format is intended to stimulate challenge and discussion. The guide looks to support the TCFD recommendations as their adoption delivers major change.
The IFoA has a formal link with the Oxford Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment. An IFoA representative sits on the Global Advisory Council of the Sustainable Finance Programme. Initially, this programme was narrowly titled Stranded Assets but after some years was renamed to reflect the broader scope of work that developed. The Sustainable Finance Programme publishes a wide range of research and is a lead institution in a number of networks.
A recent development is spatial finance, the integration of geospatial data and analysis into financial theory and practice. Here, the Smith School founded and works through the Spatial Finance Initiative, which aims to mainstream geospatial capabilities.
The IFoA has a formal link to the Centre for the Understanding of Sustainable Prosperity (CUSP). As the name suggests, their work includes, but goes well beyond, climate change issues.
The IAA has published Importance of Climate-Related Risks for Actuaries and another earlier paper on A Decarbonization Briefing for Actuaries.
Written from an Australian perspective, Net-zero Emissions: What are Governments and Companies Doing? discusses what actions are being taken around the world.
In North America, several actuarial bodies have come together to produce the Actuaries Climate Index. Australia has followed suit with the Australian Actuaries Climate Index.