Climate risk is financial risk.

Abstract

Should businesses worry about climate risk because doing so is good for their bottom line, or because their responsibilities ought to go beyond mere financial returns to shareholders? What if expanding one's lens to include environmental, social, and corporate governance turns out to be good for business? What if not? These fundamental questions lie at the core of numerous ambitious efforts to align tools and resources of finance with global action to address climate change. And they have been raised again with alarm in recent weeks after the head of responsible investment for HSBC Asset Management, appearing at a <i>Financial Times</i> "Moral Money" event, gave a talk that was neither responsible nor moral.