Settling Climate Accounts

Introduction.- Part I: The Dynamics of Net Zero Finance.- 1.A Portfolio Approach to Hedging Climate Risk.- 2.Carbonwashing: ESG Data Greenwashing in a Post-Paris World.- 3.The Road from Scope Three to Net Zero.- 4.Fixing the Plumbing: Asset Management, Clean Energy Technology, and The Valley of Death.- Part II: Beyond Net Zero: States, Markets, and Transition.- 5.Blended Finance for State-led Decarbonization.- 6.A Natural Approach to Net-Zero.- 7.A Note on Transition Bonds and Finance.- 8.Securitization as a Model for an Equitable Transition.- Conclusion.

Thomas Heller is the Charles and Nadine Shelton Professor of International Legal Studies (emeritus) at Stanford University Law School. He also currently directs the Precourt Energy Institute's Sustainable Finance Initiative and the Steyer-Taylor Center at Stanford. In 2009 Heller founded the Climate Policy Initiative, where he was Executive Director until 2018, and remains Senior Advisor and Board Chair. As of January 2021, he became Senior Director (Risk) at WillisTowersWatson. His research has focused on risk analytics, global energy use, international climate regimes, public finance and taxation, international technology investment, and the rule of law-with particular attention to legal and economic structures in the developing world. Professor Heller has worked with the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (1995-2003), and has served as Jean Monnet Visiting Professor at the European University Institute, Deputy Director and Senior Fellow of the Freeman Spogli Institute for International Studies at Stanford University, and Senior Fellow (by courtesy) at the Woods Institute for the Environment.

Alicia Seiger is a lecturer at Stanford Law School and leads sustainability and energy finance initiatives at Stanford Law, Graduate School of Business, and the Precourt Institute for Energy. Alicia has served as an advisor to the Governors of California and New York, the New York State Comptroller, and numerous pension fund, endowment, and family office CIOs on the topics of climate risk, opportunity, and resiliency. A student of balancing human and ecological systems since the early 1990s, Alicia has been designing and executing climate and energy strategies for businesses, foundations, investors, and NGOs since 2004. She has served on the management teams of multiple startups including TerraPass, a pioneer of the US carbon offset market. Alicia serves on the boards of Ceres and Prime Coalition and co-founded Stanford Professionals in Energy (SPIE).