Climate change poses long-term risks to financial institutions’ safety and soundness, as well as possible physical threats in the near term. The former include the increased threat of wildfires in the West and severe weather events, such as hurricanes and droughts, created by the greenhouse effect.
In this episode of the CUNA News Podcast, sponsored by Moody’s Analytics, James Partridge, senior director of risk solutions practice, explores how to navigate climate risk and gauge organizational sustainability using environment, social, and governance factors (ESG).
In this episode, Partridge explains how to compile an ESG score, the role of compliance and climate risk, and how climate risk can affect the bottom line. Most importantly for credit unions, Partridge discusses how to integrate climate data into lending decisions.
You can listen to the CUNA News Podcast in Apple’s iTunes Store, Google Podcasts, Spotify, and Stitcher Radio.
In this episode:
1:55: James’ background
2:42: What is ESG?
3:45: Defining climate risk
5:22: Climate risk and compliance
6:48: Why credit unions should care about compliance
9:08: Measuring climate risk
10:21: How credit unions can improve their ESG standing
12:02: How to assess climate risk exposure
14:55: How climate risk affects financial stability
15:25 Climate risk data and lending decisions