Wilshire has launched a new video series to help guide institutional investors in understanding the investment returns and risks of the climate challenge.
Wilshire has launched a new video series to help guide institutional investors in understanding the investment returns and risks of the climate challenge.
The series is designed to help institutional investors such as retirement plans, endowments and foundations discuss climate change with investment committees, evaluate the carbon savings “bang for buck” for different indexes and take practical steps to manage portfolio risks.
“We understand that making climate-responsive investments requires conversations from both climate advocates and efficient markets purists,” says Daniel E Ingram, Senior Vice President at Wilshire. “Our goal is to help investors move to the other side of these discussions by drawing on a tried and tested process of healthy deliberation and robust analysis.”
Nili Gilbert, one of the video presenters and the Investment Committee Chair of the David Rockefeller Fund, says: “By reflecting the collective insights of all investors, markets appear to be efficient at pricing short term risks. However, markets may have a particular blind spot for efficient pricing in the long-term risks of climate change.”
The seven videos, two of which are being released today, provide high-quality educational content through interviews with industry-recognised institutional investors. The videos are designed to help equip the next generation of investment staff, trustees, beneficiaries and savers with useful tools to make more climate-responsive investment decisions as we approach net zero-emissions by 2050.
The series highlights four steps to becoming a Climate Maker:
• Climate risk assessment. How to measure the carbon intensity of a fund’s holdings.
• Prepare. Investors can’t predict when climate risks will materialize but they can prepare portfolios.
• Evaluate the options. Consider which indexes offer the best carbon saving per unit of active risk.
• Hold managers to account. Investors should feel empowered to engage as environmental stewards of portfolio companies.
Mark Makepeace, CEO of Wilshire, says: “The profound impact of climate change on institutional portfolios creates both opportunities and challenges for investors. The important contributions of the influential and knowledgeable experts that Daniel has so carefully and creatively curated will serve as an excellent educational resource for trustees and beneficiaries alike.”
