Reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the UK

Munich, 16 October 2013 – There is currently a high level of uncertainty on the international financial markets, due to the budget dispute in the USA surrounding the proposed raising of the borrowing limit. The markets are waiting with bated breath to see whether the Democrats and the Republicans will be able to agree on raising the debt ceiling, which currently stands at just under 17 trillion US dollars. The key question for investors is whether the USA and other countries will be able to pay back the debts they have taken on or whether, as in the case of the debt cut in Greece, they can expect to see losses on their investments. A recent study based on sustainability rating agency oekom research’s country ratings shows that sustainability ratings are a reliable indicator of countries’ solvency and that taking sustainability ratings into account allows investors to make a better assessment of the overall risks.

Dr Simone Varotto gave a talk to an expert group of the European Systemic Risk Board, based on his recently published paper jointly authored with former PhD student of his, Zary Aftab.

The ICMA Centre hosted another talk as part of the "Industry Insights" series, this time with long-time banking expert and Visiting Fellow Tim Skeet. The talk, entitled ‘The Impact of Brexit’ on the City, proved to be both enlightening and somewhat hopeful for aspiring financial professionals such as myself and my peers. The talk covered many topics, primarily the causes of Brexit, communication deficiencies on the part of politicians and finance specifically, wider instability in the world and the risks all of this poses for finance, and more specifically finance in the City of London.