Advancing the transition
Sustainability Quarterly COP28 Special Edition
In this special edition of the S&P Global Sustainability Quarterly, we take stock of how climate risks are impacting companies and countries around the world, and how they are responding to this challenge.
Published: November 27, 2023
COP28, this year’s annual UN climate change conference, brings together stakeholders from the public and private sector to seek concrete solutions to the climate crisis. The urgency is clear. The central goal of the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change is to limit global warming to well below 2 degrees C above pre-industrial levels, and ideally to 1.5 degrees. For reference, the base case scenario from S&P Global Commodity Insights implies the world warming by about 2.4 degrees C by 2100.
Against this backdrop, the COP28 Special Edition of the S&P Global Sustainability Quarterly brings together our research and insights on key themes that will be in focus in Dubai. We start with physical risk and its impacts on countries and companies. Research from S&P Global Ratings finds that physical risks linked to climate change may become an increasing source of supply-side shocks for the economy, particularly if adaptation and resilience investments are not stepped up. S&P Global Sustainable1 research finds that the physical impacts of climate change represent a significant financial risk for many companies without adaptation measures.
The research that follows charts the path forward. Report from S&P Global Ratings explores the industries that are more exposed to climate transition risks, while S&P Global Mobility provides a case study on the auto industry’s decarbonization challenges and opportunities. Research from S&P Global Market Intelligence analyzes the impact of the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) on companies in Europe and beyond.
Research from S&P Global Commodity Insights and S&P Global Ratings explores the outlook for oil and gas financing and the role of Islamic finance in supporting the climate transition in the Middle East and globally. As the world turns its eyes to Dubai, we hope that the research and data gathered here will contribute to advancing the transition.
Project Leads & Contributors
S&P Global Sustainable1
Lindsey Hall
Global Head of Thought Leadership
Lindsey Hall is Head of ESG Thought Leadership at S&P Global Sustainable1, where she co-hosts the ESG Insider podcast and is a steering member of S&P Global's Diversity Research Lab.
She got her start in financial journalism writing for various Financial Times publications in London before joining SNL Financial in 2010, where she spent a decade covering financial news and regulation as a reporter and editor.
Lindsey holds a Masters from the London School of Economics.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Matt Macfarland
Senior Editor, Thought Leadership,, Editorial Manager, S&P Global Sustainability Quarterly
Matt MacFarland is the industry editor for nonbank financial services news at S&P Global Market Intelligence. His coverage includes investment banking, asset management, financial technology and capital markets. A particular focus is equity market structure, which he covered as a reporter for SNL Financial.
Matt holds a master’s degree in creative writing from the University of Virginia and a bachelor’s degree in English from Hampden-Sydney College.
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Tiziana Maria Antonietti
Associate, Sustainability Solutions
S&P Global Ratings
Beth Burks
Director of Sustainable Finance
Beth Burks is a Director of Sustainable Finance at S&P Global Ratings – the international credit rating agency and one of the largest providers of information to inform debt capital markets. In her role, Beth develops, conducts and oversees the analysis of the environment, social, and governance (ESG) performance of corporations accessing the financial capital markets. This includes both analyzing the ESG factors of performance that influence credit quality (the probability of default), and impact on stakeholders that could lead to future financial impacts on these companies. Beth is the lead analyst for EMEA covering all Sustainable Finance evaluations including Second Party Opinions. Beth is one of the architects of S&P Ratings ESG Evaluation, a one of a kind assessment of a company’s ESG strategy and ability to prepare for potential future risks and opportunities.
Beth is one of S&P Global’s team of delegates that participates annually in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference of parties (UNFCCC COP). Her research primarily focuses on net zero targets, water risk, and the social implications of climate change. Investment Week nominated her paper on spatial finance in the Thought Leadership category of its Sustainable & ESG Investments Awards 2020. This paper quantitatively linked satellite data on ecosystems to the debt metrics of water utilities in the United States. She holds an MSc Geographical Information Science from Birkbeck College, and a BSc Mathematics from Imperial College in London. Born to British parents, she grew up in Belgium and South Korea.
Beth is one of S&P Global’s team of delegates that participates annually in the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change conference of parties (UNFCCC COP). Her research primarily focuses on net zero targets, water risk, and the social implications of climate change. Investment Week nominated her paper on spatial finance in the Thought Leadership category of its Sustainable & ESG Investments Awards 2020. This paper quantitatively linked satellite data on ecosystems to the debt metrics of water utilities in the United States. She holds an MSc Geographical Information Science from Birkbeck College, and a BSc Mathematics from Imperial College in London. Born to British parents, she grew up in Belgium and South Korea.
S&P Global Commodity Insights
Hassan Eltorie
Director, Companies & Transactions Research
He is responsible for equity analysis, valuations, and strategy assessment of large international E&Ps. Hassan also develops financial models to measure the geopolitical risk of individual E&P companies, with recommendations on appropriate valuation methodologies and portfolio optimization. Prior to joining IHS Markit(now part of S&P Global) in 2011, he spent five years in the corporate strategy and mergers and acquisitions group at Reliant Energy, helping guide the company's strategy and executing asset and company acquisitions. Previous to that, he worked in investment banking and structured finance with Commercial International Bank and JPMorgan.
Hassan holds a BS from the American University in Cairo, Egypt, and an MBA from Rice University.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Peter Kernan
Managing Director Global Head of Analytics & Research
Peter Kernan is a Managing Director and a member of S&P Global Ratings Methodologies group Centre of Excellence.
In this role, Peter is responsible for criteria development and developing solutions to address complex global credit risk analytical issues across different asset classes. Peter is also one of S&P Global Ratings subject matter experts in Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) analytics and has an extensive background of research, public speaking and publishing in the credit risk and ESG spaces. Peter first published ESG credit risk research on how climate change policies impact power generation companies in 2005. Peter was formerly the Global Criteria Officer for Corporate and Infrastructure Ratings at S&P Global Ratings in which role Peter oversaw the development of all criteria applied to rate corporate and infrastructure entities globally.
Peter was previously the Head of S&P Global Ratings EMEA Utilities team and the Chairman of S&P Global Ratings Global Government Related Entity focus team. Peter has also held roles as the Head of S&P Global Ratings EMEA Telecommunications and Cable team and EMEA Diversified Industries team, which provided ratings and analytics for companies in the investment holding company, forest products, business services, paper and packaging, transportation and building materials sectors.
Peter joined S&P Global Ratings in 1998 as a telecom and cable analyst having worked for Societe Generale as a loan officer and HSBC in leveraged buy-outs and acquisition finance. Peter holds a Bachelor of Commerce Degree from University College, Dublin and a Master’s Degree in Business Studies from The Graduate School of Business at University College, Dublin with a specialization in financial services.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Rick Lord
Head of Innovation Methodology
Rick Lord is Head of Climate Methodology at S&P Global Sustainable1. In this role, Rick specializes in the developing and delivering data and tools to quantify environmental, social and governance risks to assets, projects, companies and investment portfolios. Most recently he has led the development of innovative and market leading analytics focusing on ESG issues including carbon pricing risk, alignment with the U.N. Sustainable Development Goals, and climate change physical risk. Rick’s work at Trucost aims to link ESG issues to drivers of corporate and investor financial value creation, and to frame material ESG issues in the context of business strategy.
Rick holds a Masters in Environmental Economics from Imperial College London and a Bachelor’s of Science from Queensland University of Technology.
S&P Global Ratings
Paul Munday, Ph.D.
Director, Global Climate Adaptation & Resilience Specialist
Paul Munday is a Director, Global Climate Adaptation & Resilience Specialist at S&P Global Ratings, where he leads and coordinates S&P Global Ratings’ research and application of climate adaptation and resilience analytics. He works at the interface between data and research, leveraging his expertise to help improve clarity of the credit impacts from climate risks.
Paul has over 10 years of experience in both the UK and abroad, providing advice to private and public sector clients across multiple sectors to help mainstream consideration of climate resilience into projects and programmes. Prior to joining S&P Global Ratings, Paul worked in climate risk consultancy.
He is a Chartered Scientist, Chartered Water and Environment Manager and certified expert in climate adaptation finance by the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Filippo Sebastio
ESG Methodology Specialist
Mr. Filippo Sebastio is a Manager at Sustainable1, S&P Global, overviewing the work related to methodology development, ESG regulation, and related environmental data work. Before joining S&P, Filippo worked as Head of the Analytics Department at ELEVATE, an ESG consulting firm, developing data-based solutions for retailers, brands, and buyers to help them assess the ESG risk in their supply chain. Filippo holds a MSc in International Trade, Finance, and Development from the Barcelona Graduate School of Economics and an MSc and BA in Development Studies from the University of Bologna.
S&P Global Mobility
Vijay Subramanian
Director, Sustainability Research, Sustainable Mobility
S&P Global Market Intelligence
Michael Taschner
Executive Director, Global Head of Sustainability Solutions
Before joining S&P Global as head of the ESG Advisory unit, Michael was leading the Sustainable Finance and Strategic Legal Regulatory department at a Big4 company in Switzerland. Previously, he was Co-CEO and Head of Sust. Finance and Wealth Management of an international quant-company focusing on ESG risk management.
Thank you to all our colleagues across S&P Global who contributed to the design, production and publication of the S&P Global Sustainability Quarterly: Atul Arya, Rameez Ali, Giacomo Bareato, Kurt Burger, Meha Dave, Alexandra Dimitrijevic, Carla Donaghey, Jaspreet Duhra, Ken Fredman, Lotte Griek, Hannah Kidd, Roman Kramarchuk, Camille McManus, Stephanie Oxford, Mark Pengelly, Priya Suvarna, Cat VanVliet, Nora Wittstruck.