Unwritten, the climate risk platform for private markets, hosted a roundtable on whether climate change is financially material for investors. Professor Cameron Hepburn (Environmental Economics, University of Oxford) set the scene on the pace of the climate transition and its materiality for investors. Participants included climate finance leaders from banking, ESG leaders from public and private markets, standard setters and regulators.

Key takeaways

1. The pace of the climate transition makes it a material issue for investors. Professor Hepburn opened by setting out how quickly the climate transition is moving and why that pace matters for investment decisions.
2. Claims that climate change is financially material need rigorous analysis. The session tested, through real case studies, whether claims of climate materiality hold up under scrutiny.
3. Climate due diligence applies to industrial services businesses, not just heavy emitters. A climate due diligence of a mining services company showed how investors can assess transition exposure in businesses that serve high-emitting sectors.
4. Software companies can be materially affected by the climate transition. A second case study analysed how software companies, often seen as low climate risk, are materially affected by the transition.
5. Climate materiality varies by sector and business model. Comparing a mining services company with software businesses showed that investors need company-specific analysis rather than sector-level assumptions.

About Unwritten

Unwritten is a London-based climate risk platform for private markets. Its platform, Unwritten AI, helps private equity and infrastructure investors assess physical, transition and nature risk at fund, portfolio company and site level.

The platform uses artificial intelligence to automate complex climate risk data workflows and drive value-creation opportunities for private markets investors, asset managers and corporate risk leaders. Unwritten helps leaders move beyond minimum compliance to actively manage risk and build operational resilience that creates value at the PortCo level.