On Friday, September 20, 2024, the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, in partnership with the School of International and Public Affairs at Columbia University, will host the third annual Environmental Economics and Policy Conference. This year’s conference is supported by the university’s Institute for Social and Economic Research and Policy in the Faculty of Arts and Sciences.
The in-person event, to be held at Columbia University, will feature a keynote presentation from Solomon Hsiang, Professor of Global Environmental Policy at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability and director of the Global Policy Laboratory at Stanford University; academic paper presentations; and panel discussions with expert practitioners exploring environment-related dimensions and innovations in insurance and non-financial markets.
The event will be of interest to academics, economists, financial services professionals, and leaders of community organizations, government agencies, and policy advocacy organizations.
Registration closes at 12 am on September 17, 2024.
September 20, 2024
9:00am-5:00pm
(Reception to follow)
The Forum at Columbia University
Auditorium
605 West 125th Street
New York, NY
This in-person event is open to the public.
This event is open to the media. All remarks are on the record, with the recording to be made available afterwards. For media inquiries, please contact Ellen Simon at Ellen.Simon@ny.frb.org .
Agenda
9:15am-9:30am  | Welcome and Opening Remarks
Jeffrey Shaman, PhD, Interim Dean, Professor of Climate, Columbia Climate School and Professor of Environmental Health Sciences, Mailman School of Public Health |
9:30am-12:00pm  | SESSION ONE: INSURANCE
Moderator: Julian Di Giovanni, Head of Climate Risk Studies, Financial Intermediation Policy Research Division, Federal Reserve Bank of New York |
9:30am-10:00am  | Presentation: Property Insurance and Disaster Risk: New Evidence from Mortgage Escrow Data
Benjamin Keys, Rowan Family Foundation Professor, Professor of Real Estate, Professor of Finance, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania |
10:00am-10:30am  | Presentation: Climate Risk and the U.S. Insurance Gap: Measurement, Drivers, and Implications
Parinitha Sastry, Assistant Professor of Finance, Columbia Business School |
10:30am-11:00am | Presentation: Insurance Market Policy Choices in a Changing Climate: An Application to Florida Benjamin Dennis, Principal Economist, Policy Planning and Strategy Section, Supervision and Regulation, Federal Reserve Board of Governors |
11:00am-11:05am | Break |
11:05am-12:00pm | Practitioner Panel Moderator: Benjamin Keys, Rowan Family Foundation Professor, Professor of Real Estate, Professor of Finance, the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania Charlie Sidoti, Executive Director, InnSure Andrew Salkin, Founding Principal, Resilient Cities Catalyst |
12:00pm-1:00pm | Lunch |
1:00pm-2:00pm | Keynote and Q+A Solomon Hsiang, Director of the Global Policy Laboratory, Stanford University; Professor of Global Environmental Policy at the Stanford Doerr School of Sustainability Robert Metcalfe, Professor of International and Public Affairs, Professor of Energy Policy, Columbia University |
2:00pm-2:15pm | SESSION TWO: NON-FINANCIAL ENVIRONMENTAL MARKETS Moderator: Douglas Almond, Professor of International and Public Affairs and Economics, Columbia University |
2:15pm-2:45pm | Presentation: The Macroeconomic Impact of Climate Change: Global vs. Local Temperature Adrien Bilal, Assistant Professor of Economics, Harvard University |
2:45pm-3:15pm | Presentation: Trade, Trees, and Health Xinming Du, Assistant Professor of Economics, National University of Singapore |
3:15pm-3:45pm | Presentation: Homeward Bound: How Migrants Seek Out Familiar Climate Marguerite Obolensky, PhD Candidate Columbia University School of International and Public Affairs |
3:45pm-3:50pm | Break |
3:50pm-4:45pm | Practitioner Panel Moderator: Julian Macrone, Community Development Specialist, Federal Reserve Bank of New York Sheila Foster, Professor of Climate, Columbia Climate School Ben Weisman, Executive Director, Capital Mobilization, Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero |
4:45pm-4:50pm | Closing Remarks David Erickson, Head of Outreach and Education, Federal Reserve Bank of New York |