Climate Investments Today: More Harm Than Good?

Dan Grandage is Head of Sustainable Investing at abrdn. He supports abrdn’s global investments business to protect and enhance investment performance through integrating ESG and sustainability in all elements of the investment process via the creation and oversight of standards and market leading frameworks. Mr. Grandage represents abrdn on the Global Real Estate Sustainability Benchmark (GRESB) Standards Committee, plus a number of Investment Association sustainable finance working groups. He is also a board member of the UK Better Building Partnership. Mr. Grandage joined abrdn in 2013 from WSP Group where he had responsibility for the Sustainable Real Estate team delivering practical sustainability solutions for investors. Prior to that, he worked for RPS Consultants with a focus on the environmental management of corporate mergers and acquisitions. Mr. Grandage graduated with a BSc in Environmental Geology from Sheffield University, and holds an MSc from Manchester University in Urban Geoscience.

Elisa Benito holds a Bachelor's degree (BSc) in Environmental Sciences from the Universidad Autonoma de Madrid in 2011, and a Master's degree (MSc) in Sustainable Finance from the Business School Lausanne in 2016. Elisa worked for 2 years (2011-2013) for an airline in the corporate responsibility and environment department, in particular for carbon emissions trading in the European market (ETS). Between 2013 and 2015, she worked in the field of energy efficiency, especially on energy performance contracting (EPC) and project financing at the Spanish Association of Energy Service Companies (ANESE). She has passed the CFA Level 1 exam, and is currently preparing for Level 2. She joined CONINCO in February 2017 as a Sustainable Financial Analyst.

Thomas is an Investment Director on the European Credit Team and European Research Lead for the Climate Transition Bond Fund. He joined the company in 2013 on the graduate scheme. Since then, his roles have focused primarily on credit research, covering real estate and structured finance, among other sectors, in both public and private debt. Thomas graduated from the University of Manchester where he obtained a Bachelor of Laws (LLB) and a Master of Laws (LLM) in International Finance Law.He is a CFA Charterholder.

Impact-driven senior investments professional. Over 16 years of experience gathered in Consulting, Mergers & Acquisitions and Private Equity. In charge of communication, marketing and business development.

Carlo Farina was born in Italy in 1976 and moved to Switzerland in 2004 for professional reasons. Throughout his career he has held different positions at Reuters Sa and HSBC. Since 2013 he is portfolio manager of real assets for the CERN Pension Fund. In this role he is responsible for the real estate, timber/farmland and infrastructure portfolio of the CERN Pension Fund and also being focused on sustainability practises for the Pension Fund and is a frequent speaker on ESG, climate investing related themes. He holds different professional certification including CAIA, CFA ESG and APRM, Professional Risk Management Association and Microsoft Office Master level.