New Orleans Forum on Climate Linked Economics

Our agenda at a glance

We’re looking forward to seeing you in New Orleans in just over two weeks! Here’s a quick overview of what to expect, alongside links that will take you on a deeper dive.

The New Orleans Forum on Climate-Linked Economics, January 13-16, 2025, at the Ernest N. Morial Convention Center (Room 205) will gather a diverse group of professionals—meteorologists, climate scientists, economists, corporate executives, risk managers, financial planners, insurance experts, tech leaders, funding agencies, investors, and policymakers—all focused on addressing the economic and business challenges posed by extreme weather and climate change.

Here’s sending a big THANK YOU to the organizers of the 105th Annual Meeting of the American Meteorological Society for hosting us.

On Monday, January 13, 2025, we start at 830am in room 205 with discussions on Managing Systemic Risk and Building Resilient Communities led by Josh Hacker from Jupiter Intelligence and Josh Darr from Guy Carpenter. Sessions include:

• Keynote Speaker: Moving Day, by Susan Crawford from the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace and Harvard Law

• Invited Speaker discussing Innovation in Sustainability at the New Orleans Ernest N. Morial Convention Center by Linda Baynham, the Director of Sustainability and Corporate Social Responsibility, Ernest N. Morial Convention Center

• ClimateDesk: Leveraging Premier Climate Model Ensembles and Advanced Downscaling Techniques for Business-Ready Insights by Sean Miller from Viasala

• Seasonal Amplification of Wind Stilling Compounds Energy Risks in a Warming Climate, by Gan Zhang from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign

• Keynote Speaker on The Impacts of Extreme Weather, Climate Change, and Developments in Science and Technology on the Future of the US Power Grid, by Robert F. Brammer from the American Bar Association, the University of Maryland, and Brammer Technology

• Law and Order: Voluntary Carbon Markets, by Frank Michael Shanny from the University of Maryland

• Effects of Predictive Wind Speed, Temperature, and Cloud Cover Change on Co-Located Wind and Solar Energy Farms in Maryland, by Elana Naide from the University of Maryland

• A Panel Discussion on Climate Risk Management in Banking, Moderated by, Josh Hacker from Jupiter Intelligence and including Kingsley Greenland from Verisk, Gan Zhang from the University of Illinois at Urbana Champaign and Josh Darr from Guy Carpenter

At 430pm on Monday, January 13, 2025, Brock Burghardt from Synoptic Data and Stephen Bennett from Demex lead a discussion on Climate Adaptation in Real Estate.

• A Panel Discussion on Navigating Climate Risks and Economic Shifts in Real Estate, Moderated by Brock J. Burghardt and including K. Mulder from Liberty Mutual Insurance, Stephen B. Bennett from Demex, and Dr. Jacques Gordon from the University of Wisconsin-Madison

Brock and Stephen will continue discussing Climate Adaptation in Real Estate on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, at 830am. Sessions include:

• Understanding and Assessing Climate-Induced Population Migration, by

  Neha Schollmeyer, from Pricewaterhouse Coopers, LLC

• Climate Price Bubble: Economic Impact in US Housing Market, by

  Wahib Ghazni from Jupiter Intelligence

• Role of Insurance, Equity, and Liquidity in Post-Flood Financial Resilience of Residential Mortgage Borrowers, by Kieran Patrick Fitzmaurice from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• The Effect of Insurance Premiums on the Housing Market and Climate Risk Expectations, by Shan Ge from New York University

Then, at 930am on Tuesday, January 14, 2025, Josh Darr from Guy Carpenter and Stephen Bennett from Demex will launch a discussion on Modeling Weather and Climate for Applications in Insurance and Reinsurance. Sessions include:

• WUIs to Watch: Understanding Evolving Insurance Risk in the Wildland Urban Interface by William D Stikeleather from Guy Carpenter

• Flood Climate Adaptation Modeling, by Mahmoud Khater from CoreLogic, Inc.

• Invited Speaker on Severe Convective Storms: Insights from Industry Experts and the Role of Reinsurance by Stephen Bennett from Demex

• Severe Thunderstorm Views of Risk for the Insurance Industry, by Kristie Kaminski from Guy Carpenter

• Identifying Tipping Points in Climate-Related Insurance Modeling, by

  Eleanor A. Middlemans from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP

• Need for “Climate-Coupled Catastrophe”TM (C3TM) Models – A Novel Modeling Approach for Climate Risk Analytics, by Mahmoud Khater from CoreLogic, Inc

• A Panel Discussion on Economic Weather Risk Transfer: What Is It, and How Does It Enhance Institutional Resilience? Moderated by Matt Coleman from Demex

On Wednesday, January 15th, 2025, Jon Davis from Everstream Analytics and Michael Ferrari from Alpha Geo will kick off at 830am discussing Weather, Water, and Climate Applications for Commodities Markets and Supply Chain Operations. Sessions include:

• A Panel Discussion on Navigating Climate Risks in the Global Supply Chain Moderated by Jon Davis from Everstream Analytics and including Adam Turchioe, the Former Chief Meteorologist at Cargill and currently Meteorologist at Hartree Partners; Jeff Massey, the Weather Team Lead at Amazon; and Steve Bennett, the Chief Scientist at Demex.

• Navigating Risks: ENSO, Climate Trends, and Their Impact on the Panama Canal, by Mark S. Russo from Everstream Analytics

• Improving Renewable Energy Decision Support with Subseasonal-to-Seasonal Forecasts, by Karl Critz from Salient Predictions

• Spire’s High-Resolution and AI Sub-Seasonal Weather Models: Essential Tools for Managing Volatile Wind and Solar Energy Markets, by Tom Gowan from Spire Global

• Overview of 2024 Tropical Cyclone Impacts on United States Agriculture, by

  Logan R. Bundy from Northern Illinois University

• Potential Impacts of Wind-Related Perils on Air Freight: Assessing Vulnerability and Mitigating Risks for the Global Supply Chain, by Francesco Preti from PwC

At 145pm on Wednesday, January 15th, 2025, Mark Papier from AT&T and Stephen Bennett from Demex will lead Special Topics in Climate-Linked Economics. Sessions include:

• The Economic Benefits of Drought Plans, by Harvey Spencer Hill from the University of Saskatchewan

• Is Global Mean Surface Temperature the Best Index of Global Warming? By R. Saravanan from Texas A&M University

Then, at 215pm on Wednesday, January 15, 2025, Cameron Rencurrel from PricewaterhouseCooper and Josh Hacker from Jupiter Intelligence turn the discussion to Reporting, Regulation, and Government Intervention. This afternoon’s sessions include:

• Keynote Speaker on Business Resilience at the Intersection of ‘Values’ and ‘Value’ by Steve Bochanski from PricewaterouseCoopers, LLP

• Roundtable Discussion on Climate Reporting, Regulation, and Government Intervention, Hosted by Michael Cameron Rencurrel from PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP and including including Steve Bochanski – Lead Climate Risk Partner at PwC, Alison Heslin – Executive Director, Climate Risk at JPMorgan Chase, and Joshua Hacker, co-founder and chief science officer of Jupiter Intelligence.

On Thursday, January 16, 2025, Jason Cordeira from the Center for Western Weather and Water Extremes (CW3E) at UCSD/Scripps and Jon Davis from Everstream Analytics lead a discussion on Weather, Water, and Climate Applications for financial Decision-making beginning at 830am. Sessions include:

• Invited Speaker on Realized Benefits of Balancing Competing Purposes at US Army Corps of Engineers Reservoirs by Using Forecast Informed Reservoir Operations, by Cary Talbot, U.S. Army Engineer Research and Development Center.

• Assessing and Managing the Financial Risk of Variable Hydrology in California, by Gregory Characklis from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Managing Water Price Volatility: Hedging Strategies for Water Markets in the Western U.S., by Dan Li from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill.

• A Composite Index-Based Instrument for Managing the Financial Risk of Variable Hydrometeorology for Electric Utilities, by Yash Amonkar from the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill

• Identifying and Defining Vulnerable Communities in Eastern North Carolina by Thyme Brown from the National Weather Service

• Invited Speaker on Examining Financial Impacts to New York State Due to Impactful Weather, by Nick P. Bassill from the University at Albany

• Developing a Theoretical Foundation for Information for Climate-Risk Management: Assessing the Value of Information in a Stylized Example, by Frances Moore from Columbia University

• Geospatial Climate Intelligence: Assessing Climate-Related Physical Risks and Enhancing Financial Resilience, by Yang Yang from PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP

• Measuring the Climate Transition Physical Risk: Business Exposure and Validation Perspective, by Alexander Andrianov from PricewaterhouseCoopers, LLP

Our final session at the 2025 New Orleans Forum on Climate Linked Economics is led by Stephen Bennett from Demex and Manda Adams from the National Science Foundation at 145pm on Thursday, January 16, 2025, and shifts to discuss Investing for Innovation and Entrepreneurship.

• A Panel Discussion on Investing in Innovation for Weather/Climate-Driven Industries, Moderated by Manda Adams from the National Science Foundation and including:

  • A NOAA or NSF-NOAA Representative (TBA) on NOAA’s reinsurance partnership and climate data applications and/or the new IUCRC for climate risk modeling;

  • Victor A. Gensini, PhD, CCM (Northern Illinois University): Discussing the proposed Center for Interdisciplinary Research on Convective Storms

  • Greg Characklis, PhD, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill: Discussing the UNC Institute for Risk Management and Insurance Innovation

  • Matt Stein / CEO and Co-Founder, Salient Predictions

  • Stephen Bennett / Chief Scientist and Co-Founder, Demex.

New Orleans

On behalf of our amazing Program Committee, thanks to everyone for volunteering their time and efforts to bring this all together!!

• Manda Adams, National Science Foundation

• Stephen Bennett, Demex

• Jason (Jay) Cordeira, Scripps Institution of Oceanography at UC San Diego

• Josh Darr, Guy Carpenter

• Jon Davis, Everstream Analytics

• Michael Ferrari, Alpha Geo

• Josh Hacker, Jupiter Intelligence

• Jeff Massey, Amazon

• M. Cameron Rencurrel, PwC

• Brock Burghardt, Synoptic Data PBC

We look forward to seeing you there!