Climate Change and Sustainable Finance
Climate change is too big and overwhelming a topic for most people. The scope of the problem, and the lack of clarity regarding how to solve it, is enough to instill a sense of despair in the most optimistic among us. However, there’s good news. We already have in our grasp the technologies and techniques to take a significant bite out of the problem – both on the causes side (by eliminating climate pollution) and the outcomes side (by enhancing our ability to withstand the acute shocks and chronic stresses that climate change is already producing).
Join our expert panel Tom Rand, Robin Edger, and Alex Chapman with moderator Dr. Dianne Saxe for a discussion on what the financial community is doing now to accelerate the green transition.
We will take a look at:
- Clean capitalism and Canadian venture capitalists
- Property assessed clean energy programs
- The Canadian insurance industry and the role it is playing
The panel will look at how we might implement solutions on a large enough scale to give us a fighting chance of passing a liveable planet on to future generations.
Co-sponsored by Our Energy Guelph and Insurance Bureau of Canada.
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Speakers
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Dianne SaxeSenior Fellow, former Environmental Commissioner of OntarioDr. Dianne Saxe is one of Canada’s most respected environmental lawyers, with a Clean50 award, a Ph.D. in Law, a Law Society Medal and many other awards. She was a popular Environmental Commissioner of Ontario, reporting to the Legislature on environment, energy and climate. She now heads SaxeFacts, hosts the Green Economy Heroes podcast, is Deputy Leader of the Ontario Green Party, is Green Party candidate in University-Rosedale and is a Massey College Senior Fellow.
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Tom RandManaging Partner, ArcTern Ventures
Tom started his career as a software renegade in high school. Then, still baby-faced, he went legit and founded Voice Courier Inc. (VCi) to service the emerging Interactive Voice Response market. Tom led VCi’s expansion to over 100 employees in three countries. (The VCi Group of Companies was successfully sold in 2005.) In the past, Tom co-developed Planet Traveller, a low-carbon hotel project in downtown Toronto. Today, Tom focuses his efforts on carbon mitigation and is active in cleantech venture capital, technology incubation and commercialization, and public advocacy.
Tom is an Action Canada Fellow and has a BASc (University of Waterloo), an MSc (University of London), and an MA and Phd (University of Toronto), and is the author of three acclaimed books.
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Robin EdgerNational Director, Climate Change at Insurance Bureau of Canada
Robin Edger is the National Director, Climate Change at the Insurance Bureau of Canada (IBC). In this role he leads the organizations national work on sustainable finance and climate resilience.
Prior to working at IBC, Robin was the Executive Director and CEO of the Canadian Association of Physicians for the Environment. He also previously led the Ontario region of the Pembina Institute.
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Alex ChapmanExecutive Director, Our Energy Guelph
Alex Chapman is the Executive Director of Our Energy Guelph. He holds a Bachelor of Applied Science in Civil Engineering from the University of Toronto, a Master of Business Administration from McGill University, and is a Certified Energy Manager, a Certified Energy Auditor, and a certified Renewable Energy Professional. In his diverse career he has done project engineering in the pulp and paper industry, academic research for the Technical University of Delft in the Netherlands, sub-sea pipeline installation in Europe for the oil and gas sector, business analysis and IT project management for one of the world’s largest professional services firms, sales and marketing for a solar energy installation contractor, and managed the Climate Change Office of the City of Guelph.
He serves on the board of directors of PACE (Property Assessed Clean Energy) Canada, the Energy Task Force of the Association of Municipalities of Ontario, and the advisory board of Electric Autonomy Canada, and is a member of the Clean Air Partnership and the Association of Energy Engineers.
He lives with his family in Guelph, Ontario.
