The following are active research working parties overseen by the IFoA’s the Sustainability Research and Thought Leadership Sub-committee.
All members are encouraged to volunteer for a research working party. If you have your own ideas for member-led research you would like to pursue, please contact our Practice Communities Team below or refer to our Guidance for Research Working Parties (562 KB PDF).
Members interested in volunteering for a research working party should check our volunteer vacancies.
This working party will ask - in a well-diversified portfolio, can an asset manager invest in commodities and still meet ESG goals?
About
Chair: Pankaj Verma
Established: 2023
Biodiversity is being lost at an unprecedented rate (a mass extinction). The economic or financial impact of this loss is unknown. There is an increasing amount of work focusing on how business and government decision-making can account for biodiversity through concepts such as natural capital valuation. This is an important topic on which there has been little actuarial discussion. The Biodiversity & Natural Capital Risk Working Party will include (contested) concepts such as natural capital and valuation of ecosystem services. This is a crucial focus for the draft Environment Bill in the UK Government and so a significant increase in policy and regulation is expected to follow on from this Bill.
The Biodiversity working party has formed four subgroups to consider a range of Biodiversity issues including Zoonotic disease / Covid-19, natural capital, valuation metrics, and justice.
Chair: Aled Jones
Established: 2020
This group aims to develop an understanding of carbon pricing and its implications towards the journey to a net zero economy.
About
Chair: Hemel Naran
Established: 2023
This working party is examining how actuaries are currently using climate scenario modelling, identifying best practices, and where this doesn’t exist, to suggest appropriate approaches.
About
Chair: Peter Murphy
Established: 2023
Disclosure is an important part of any business or organisation. It helps stakeholders to understand and manage risks and opportunities, as well as give confidence internally and externally, allowing both the company and stakeholders to make informed decisions.
Climate change disclosures are filtering through to various reporting standards and local legislation, moving from voluntary to mandatory requirements. It is important that we as practitioners are not only able to comply with disclosure requirements but use this as a tool to understand risks to make informed decisions.
Chair: Debashish Dey, Lloyd Richards
Established: 2022
This group will examine the impact of mortality and morbidity of climate change perils.
About
Chair: Eric Ofosu-Hene
Established: 2023
The aim of the group is to provide important information and guidance on this issue which impacts a wide range of actuarial work.
About
Chair: Alex Darsley
Established: 2024
This group will develop/promote actuarial solutions related to the inequality of climate change for actuaries/broader stakeholders.
About
Chair: Tan Sze Won
Established: 2023
This working party will develop a framework for assessing sustainability related risks with limited measurements.
About
Chair: Raluca Gavron
Established: 2023
Produce a scoping document to progress an IFoA definition for net zero alignment of an investment portfolio. As there are plenty of initiatives in this space, it is anticipated that this group will be collating content from these, rather than producing an original IFoA definition.
The Net Zero Portfolio Alignment Working Group was established by the IFoA’s Sustainability Board to create material to help actuaries understand this key area as well as to help them navigate the various initiatives and frameworks.
This working party aims to raise awareness of Net Zero investing by producing a report aimed at actuaries who are keen to learn more about how investing can help address climate change. We appreciate that actuaries who are new to the subject may be put off learning more due to the daunting number of acronyms and complex jargon of the world of Net Zero investing. We aim to address this by introducing key concepts, organisations and frameworks at a high level.
Chairs: Brandon Horwitz
Established: 2022
This working party is looking at how IFoA and the government interact with regard to sustainability issues.
About
Chair: Laura Llewellyn-Jones
Established: 2023
For more information about any of our practice areas, please email the Communities Engagement Team