As part of the Sustainable Investing Research Institute Practicum course, I will be assessing the impact of various climate hazards on the financial value of physical assets. This project is within the climate finance industry and aims to create site-specific climate risk data to inform asset owners' financial decisions. Additionally, this project aims to address the existing data gap within private institutions in identifying the vulnerability levels of different assets to certain climate hazards.
Throughout this project, I expect to develop quantitative tools to measure the hazard severity of different physical assets and their exposure profiles to these climate hazards. As advised by the client, our team will use industry-standard loss estimates and natural disaster databases to determine the global severity levels of climate hazards. I also anticipate learning a lot from my team members, as we come from diverse professional and academic backgrounds and share a passion for addressing the climate crisis. As the client coordinator for this project, I hope to learn the most effective way to collaborate virtually with our client, who is not based in New York City. I also hope to strengthen my presentation skills, as the tools and research we will be presenting to our client will be new areas for me.
I am also particularly excited about this project because I want to learn about the different mechanisms in which climate risks are integrated into financial decisions. Having grown up in Hong Kong, I saw firsthand the effects of extreme heat on vulnerable populations living in substandard living conditions, such as subdivided units. Although I have some experience researching the effects of climate change on vulnerable communities, I have yet to translate these effects into potential monetary losses.
I believe that participating in this project will equip me with the tools to communicate the financial and strategic imperative of climate adaptation measures. More specifically, I hope to strengthen my modelling skills through this project to demonstrate the relationship between local hazard risks and long-term asset valuation protection. Within my current graduate program, I have yet to have an opportunity to conduct extensive research on climate adaptation measures. Thus, this is also an opportunity to apply my academic knowledge to solve real-world issues while connecting me with leaders in the climate finance industry. Ultimately, I hope to apply these skills to create long-term resilient housing solutions for those affected by extreme heat in Hong Kong.