S03E07 Jeremy McDaniels, Senior Policy Advisor Sustainable Finance, Institute of International Finance

What we discussed: Wouldn’t it make sense, if climate change is a global issue, that we have a consensus in how to approach it? Unfortunately, it’s not as easy as it seems. Although the financial sector is building consensus around required disclosures using the framework developed by the Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), different countries are implementing it in different ways. Thus, a fragmentation of policies and approaches may unintentionally undermine progress.

Why it matters: There is a tension between explore/exploit. Sometimes, the best strategy is to explore new options by segmenting, fragmenting, and allowing multiple solutions to crop up, while other times it’s best to exploit the best option so as to achieve efficiency of scale. The question is: does the financial sector still need to explore ideas of how to align finance to environmental outcomes, or do we need to exploit the structures and methodologies already developed?

What it means for you: As you go about implementing systems change, reflect on whether you need new ideas (explore) or you need efficiency gains of existing processes (exploit).

Interviewee’s Bio:

Jeremy McDaniels, Institute of International Finance, Washington DC USA

M.S. in Environmental Management (Dist.), University of Oxford, SSEE

As Senior Policy Advisor, Sustainable Finance, in the IIF Global Policy Initiatives department, Jeremy leads projects on climate risk assessment, disclosure, terminology and definitions. He also supports the IIF’s engagement on sustainable finance policy and regulatory issues with international standard-setting entities. https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeremy-mcdaniels/

In this interview, we discussed the following questions:

What's your favorite movies and what's your favorite media?
How we interact with sustainability data is becoming incredibly timely.
How would you frame sustainable finance as you try to move the world towards net zero goals?
Can you elaborate on what materiality means? When you say materiality, what viewpoint do you mean?
What is the Institute for International Finance (IIF), and what is your role within IIF?
Should there be a monolithic goal for the finance sector to minimize fragmentation, or should each subsector set their own localized sustainability goals?
Can you clarify TCFD, Taxonomy and other standards because they each have different roles in sustainable finance?
What are some global / geographic challenges that you think can be simplified for sustainability purposes?
When you're working at such high levels, how granular do you need to be on the ground to make these decisions?
Is any financial subsector more advanced in their sustainable finance thinking and approach?
Do you notice a 'translation' issue as different financial sectors grapple with the common problem of climate change?
We've spent a lot of time talking about risk, what do you see within the opportunity space?
Finance, like legal, accounting, telecommunication, and many others, are just enabling infrastructures for the real economy.
When we start bringing time into the equation, time introduces risk. Where is there a lot of uncertainty today?
Where did you first get exposed to sustainability as the field you wanted to dedicate your career towards?
What did you find at the intersection of media and the public?
What do you consider to be your primary skill?
To a current student, what skill or expertise do you encourage them to learn?