Sustainability Now

Climate adaptation is already a trillion-dollar market, and it's set to keep growing — but most companies aren't labelling it as one. We map where the real opportunity sits, how to tell durable demand from a good story, and why backing adaptation doesn't mean giving up on the energy transition.

Host: Bentley Kaplan, MSCI R&D

Guest: Mathew Lee, MSCI R&D

AT&T filed many weather-related 8-Ks before it finally named hurricanes as a business risk in its annual report. It isn't an outlier: more than 80% of companies acknowledge physical climate risk is material, but fewer than a third lay out the details of what that means for their business. With a record-breaking El Niño set to peak in December, host Mike Disabato talks with MSCI's Jasmina Buresch about why it takes a second or third hit before companies disclose anything specific, how to tell a critical facility from an office everyone could just work remotely from, and why investors shouldn't wait for company disclosure to catch up to the underlying exposure.

Episode reading: The Price of Not Knowing

Host: Mike Disabato, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

Guest: Jasmina Buresch, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

Founders are increasingly keeping outsized voting control when companies like SpaceX go public. In this episode, we explore how this growing trend, known as control skew, has lined up with performance across a decade of major US IPOs.

Host: Gabriela de la Serna, MSCI R&D

Guest: Jonathan Ponder, MSCI R&D

An AI agent can pull emissions data in seconds. But can it tell you whether two companies’ numbers actually mean the same thing? We look at the risks hiding behind AI’s speed and precision.

Host: Bentley Kaplan, MSCI R&D

Guest: Tanguy Sene, MSCI R&D

This is the episode four of four we did in partnership with Finance Montreal, recording panelists at their Sustainable Finance Summit. And, fittingly, this last one is on AI.

In this episode, Rheia Khalaf, who leads financial sector collaborations at Mila - Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute, discusses what she sees when a large, traditional company - the kind that turns like a tanker - decides to bring AI into its systems. She explains why the gap is rarely the technology itself but the governance that can't keep pace with it, from the concentration risk of leaning on a handful of major providers to the "shadow AI" and confidentiality gaps that open up when everyone is vibe coding. She also weighs the other side of the ledger - drug discovery, better climate prediction - against the real environmental cost of the data centers, and the water, energy and materials, that power it all.

You'll also hear from Harlan Tufford of MSCI Sustainability & Climate, on a new model he and his colleagues are building to assess which industries AI is most likely to disrupt - and support. He explores the tension between efficiency gains and job loss, why a figure like sixty percent of labor being automatable is a hypothetical maximum rather than a forecast, and how a company's economic moat decides whether the benefits of automation flow to the company, its competitors, or its customers. He also gets into what gets priced in first - the chatbots automating knowledge work, or the robots that come after.

Enjoy!!

Host: Mike Disabato, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

Guests: Rheia Khalaf, Mila – Quebec Artificial Intelligence Institute; Harlan Tufford, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

This is the third of four episodes we did in partnership with Finance Montreal, recording panelists at their Sustainable Finance Summit.

In this episode, Matthew Lawton, Head of Impact Fixed Income at T. Rowe Price, discusses what makes a blue economy bond credible and impactful, from the alignment of the issuer to the credibility of the proceeds. He explores why emerging markets are leading the global north on blue finance, where the biggest growth is likely to come from - desalination, sustainable shipping and clean drinking water - and how anchoring smaller deals can crowd in capital and scale the market.

You'll also hear from Rik Logtenberg, director of CanAdapt and a city councilmember of Nelson City, on what repeated climate disasters do to a community and why you can't simply build back the same. He also discusses the coordination problem at the heart of adaptation - the workforce, materials, funding and policy that all have to come together at once - and why municipalities carry the responsibility for resilience without the authority to deliver it.

Enjoy!!

Host: Mike Disabato, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

Guests: Matthew Lawton, T. Rowe Price; Rik Logtenberg, CanAdapt

Episode Reading

T. Rowe Price: The Blue Economy

Climate Risk Institute

This is the second of four episodes we did in partnership with Finance Montreal, recording panelists at their Sustainable Finance Summit.

In this episode, Eric Usher, head of the UN Environmental Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), discusses why banks and insurers continue to make progress on their climate commitments despite recent headlines. He explores the global pace of the electric-vehicle transition, the business case for sustainable finance and why leading banks can benefit from lower funding costs. 

You’ll also hear from Brian Kernohan, chief sustainability officer at Manulife Investment Management, on why social issues, including housing affordability, income inequality and financial inclusion, deserve greater attention alongside carbon and nature. He also discusses the Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) and its potential to make social impacts more measurable for investors.

Enjoy!!

Host: Mike Disabato

Guests: Eric Usher, UNEP FI; Brian Kernohan, Manulife IM

Episode Reading:
UN Environmental Programme Finance Initiative

Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures | TISFD Global Initiative

This is the first of four episodes we did in partnership with Finance Montreal, recording panellists at their Sustainable Finance Summit. 

Today you'll hear from Dr. Sarah Kapnick, the ex-chief scientist of NOAA and how global head of climate advisory at JPMorgan, talking about the weirdening of our natural world is impact all our resources - from drought and the Colorado River to the soil health and how fertilizer shocks are hitting your food supply. And John E. Morton Head of Nature Finance and Investment at the World Wildlife Fund discussing why half of global GDP depends on nature becoming as important as climate in the eyes of investors.

Enjoy!

Episode Reading:

Climate Intuition: Food security: The fates of farming and food in a warming world

Climate Intuition: Food security under pressure: Iran conflict disruptions and a brewing El Niño

Integrating nature into financial decision-making

Guests:

Host: Mike Disabato, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

Guest: Dr. Sarah Kapnick, JPMorgan & John E. Morton, World Wildlife Fund

When conflict disrupted gas exports through the Strait of Hormuz earlier this year, attention focused on gas prices and shipping lanes. But the shock travelled further — quietly rippling through fertilizer markets, where some producers were hit far harder than others, revealing how location-based risk can emerge deep within a supply chain.

Host: Gabriela de la Serna, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

Guest: Cole Martin, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

After the SEC stepped back from shareholder proposal oversight, courts stepped in. We take a look at early signals from this year’s proxy season and whether we're seeing a structural shift in shareholder rights.

Host: Bentley Kaplan, MSCI Sustainability & Climate

Guest: Jonathan Ponder, MSCI Sustainability & Climate