Scientific Beta

A growing number of investors seek to play their part in the fight against climate change by investing in low carbon and climate scenario alignment strategies. The regulation defining the requirements for recognition as EU Paris-aligned Benchmark pursues alignment through weighted average carbon intensity reduction and activity-based exclusions. However, reducing the average carbon intensity of a financial portfolio does not necessarily lead to progress in terms of alignment. 

On 9 February, 2021 at 1.00 pm GMT / 2.00 pm CET, Scientific Beta will be presenting an IPE webcast entitled "Beyond EU PAB compliance: From portfolio-level decarbonisation to real-world emissions reduction".

A growing number of investors seek to play their part in the fight against climate change by investing in low carbon and climate scenario alignment strategies. 

The regulation defining the requirements for recognition as EU Paris-aligned Benchmark pursues alignment through weighted average carbon intensity reduction and activity-based exclusions. 

However, reducing the average carbon intensity of a financial portfolio does not necessarily lead to progress in terms of alignment. 

In this webinar we will therefore discuss the following questions:

• How can investors effectively incentivise companies to act on climate change?
• How to align investment decisions with engagement ambitions?
• How to integrate alignment criteria beyond current carbon intensity?
• What are the implications for targets, constraints, metrics and data in the context of portfolio construction?
• How to make sure capital is reallocated over time in line with companies’ decarbonisation pledges and achievements?

The webcast will be presented by Erik Christiansen, ESG and Low Carbon Investment Specialist, and Frédéric Ducoulombier, ESG Director at Scientific Beta, and will be moderated by Brendan Maton of IPE.

Erik Christiansen is an ESG & Low Carbon Solutions Specialist with Scientific Beta. He was previously Head of Investment Strategy with the Etablissement de Retraite Additionnelle de la Fonction Publique (ERAFP), the mandatory pension scheme for French civil servants, where he was responsible for implementing the equity and ESG strategies. He has also previously worked as a Methodology Coordinator and Analyst at Vigeo Eiris, the ESG rating agency. Erik holds a Master’s degree in Management from the ESCP Business School and is a CFA charterholder.

Frédéric Ducoulombier is ESG Director at Scientific Beta. From 2015 to 2019, he was in charge of risk and compliance for Scientific Beta having previously served EDHEC Business School’s risk and investment management research centre for 10 years as the founding Director of EDHEC-Risk Institute’s executive education arm and of EDHEC Risk Institute–Asia. At EDHEC, he also taught economics and finance, managed graduate programmes and served as Deputy Associate Dean of Graduate Studies and Deputy Associate Dean of Research and Development. His research and advocacy work has focused on the purported risks of exchange traded funds, the governance and transparency of financial indices, non-financial risks in the fund management industry, smart beta and factor investing and the integration of environmental, social and governance criteria into investment. He was a member of the Consultative Working Group of the ESMA Financial Innovation Standing Committee from February 2015 to January 2017.