ESG Talks

In this episode of ESG Talks, KBRA’s Chief Credit Officer, Pat Welch interviews Stephen Pacala and Don Bain. Stephen Pacala is the Frederick D. Petrie Professor in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology at Princeton University. His research focuses on systems ecology, climate change, and the global carbon cycle. He is the founding director of Climate Central, a nongovernmental organization focused on climate change communications. Don Bain is a Senior Advisor at Climate Central. Don is an expert on climate change and the implications of sea-level rise and has advised municipalities on adaptation, risk management, economics, and finance.

Steve and Don will discuss two recent studies, the Net-Zero America Project and “Accelerating Decarbonization of the U.S. Energy System.” The Net-Zero America Project, or NZAP, is a Princeton University study that outlines five distinct pathways that could decarbonize the U.S. economy over the next 30 years. “Accelerating Decarbonization of the US Energy System,” commissioned by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering and Medicine, provides a policy blueprint for the net-zero transition.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler, an associate in KBRA's ESG and credit policy team, moderates a conversation between Pat Welch, Chief Credit Officer and Head of ESG, KBRA, and William Cox, Global Head of Corporate, Financial and Government Ratings. They discuss our firm's approach to Environmental, Social and Governance, and more.

“We do not plan to ask our credit rating analysts to step into the fray of creating ESG ratings or ESG scores. We do, however, continue to strengthen [analysts’] focus on material, quantitative, and qualitative, E, S, or G factors that impact credit. And that’s because we believe that rollup ESG scores by their nature are based on a significant number of subjective, value-based judgments about how to weight and score factors that don’t correlate with credit risk.”

- William Cox