How society addresses climate change will have a wide range of effects on financial markets and the global economy, and at the same time, finance plays a key role in enabling the transition away from an economy based on fossil fuels and toward a net-zero economy. NYU Stern has incorporated efforts across all domains, from teaching to research and policy advising, to contribute to the emerging field of climate finance. Now, under the inaugural directorship of Johannes Stroebel, professor of finance, the School has established the Climate Finance Initiative at NYU Stern to serve as a cross-school hub to bring together, create, promote, and disseminate world-class research in climate finance. With a number of individuals at the School already active researchers and thought leaders in this arena, including through the Center for Sustainable Business, the Chao-Hon Chen Institute for Global Real Estate Finance, and the Volatility and Risk Institute, Stern is especially poised to shape the field’s advancement and development. Stroebel, one of the world’s leading researchers in climate finance, has played a pivotal role in the creation of this field and has served on federal government advisory bodies in this capacity.

The Climate Finance Initiative will focus on research as well as coursework across undergraduate, MBA, PhD, and Executive Education curricula. Research to date has explored such topics as climate stress testing, climate risk hedge portfolios, and biodiversity risk.