Please select & register from the below virtual workshop options
Half-day workshop details - investment managers
1. Virtual foundation-level CFD training half-day workshop option 1
2. Virtual foundation-level CFD training half-day workshop option 2
3. Virtual foundation-level CFD training half-day workshop option 3
4. Virtual foundation-level CFD training half-day workshop option 4
5. Virtual foundation-level half-day workshop on climate scenarios
Workshop facilitators and expert presenters
Justin Smith
Head of Business Development, WWF-SA
Justin heads up WWF-SA’s Business Development Unit, overseeing WWF-SA’s business partnerships, marketing and fundraising activities for the organization.
Justin was previously employed at Woolworths Holdings leading the Good Business Journey (Sustainability Programme) – responsible for the strategy, structure and integration across the business to deliver its over 200 targets in transformation, social development, environmental issues and climate change across its African and Australasian businesses.
Prior to this Justin was head of Governance and Sustainability at Nedbank Group, an associate in Edward Nathan and Friedland (Pty) Ltd Environmental Law and Sustainability Services department; and a risk manager at Standard Bank Group Risk Management.
Justin is previous Co-chair of United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiatives Africa, a member of the National Business Initiative Western Cape Board, a past Stakeholder Council member of the Marine Stewardship Council (MSC), Green Building Council Board member, and Steering Committee member of the UN CEO Water Mandate as well as a trustee of the Table Mountain Fund.
Wendy Engel
Sustainable Finance Expert, WWF-SA
Wendy is a Finance Sector Specialist at the Finance Practice Unit at WWF-SA with a dual capacity role to drive objectives of Finance Practice strategy focused on ESG adoption and green financial solutions whilst also working within the Business Development Unit to develop a sustainable funding model for WWF South Africa.
Wendy was previously employed at ABSA Group Limited as an Agricultural Economist – responsible for the due diligence across agribusiness credit lending portfolio to deliver annual financial targets, compiling annual concentration risk, market intelligence reports and new product development.
Prior to this Wendy was an Economist at Cape Town University’s Energy Research Centre, Programme Manager of Sustainability Institute’s Masters in Sustainable Agriculture Programme, Programme Manager of Sustainable Energy Africa’s Climate Change and Sustainable Energy Programme and an Economist at the Land Development Unit.
In relation to climate change competencies and experience, Wendy was a contributing author of the SA Study of the Use of Economic Instruments and Sectoral Plants to Mitigation Climate Change and an expert reviewer for Climate Policy Initiative’s Agriculture Supply Chain Adaptation Facility. Leading on transformation partnership between Nedbank and WWF-SA between 2013 to 2018, she provided capacity building and technical expertise to Nedbank frontline staff on environmental risks, including climate change.
Brent Cloete
Director: Climate Change & Energy Economics, DNA Economics
Brent has been involved with SA climate policy for over a decade, on several pivotal projects considering the impact of mitigation policies on local sectors. Brent contributed to the development of the National Climate Change Response Policy White Paper and National Development Plan. He regularly engages with local companies, business associations, policymakers and civil society.
Prof. Brett Cohen
UCT Principal Consultant, The Green House
Prof Brett Cohen, principal consultant at The Green House, has an undergraduate and PhD degree in Chemical Engineering from the University of Cape Town in South Africa. Brett has worked on sustainability-related projects in South Africa, Australia, Peru, India, Chile, Botswana, Lesotho, Kenya and the United Kingdom, in both consulting and academic contexts. Brett is also an Associate Professor in the Department of Chemical Engineering at the University of Cape Town.
His primary services at The Green House include climate risks and opportunities, energy and climate change scenario and futures planning and policy development, technology assessment, industrial ecology, decision support, policy development, research, strategy development and stakeholder engagement and workshop facilitation. His interests include development of decision support frameworks, tools and modelling paradigms for supporting complex decision-making in the context of sustainability, in strategic, tactical and operational decision contexts. His work draws on experience from chemical process engineering, multi criteria decision analysis techniques, network theories, natural systems, complex systems analysis and economics to develop robust and defensible system models.
Brett is a C2 National Research Foundation (NRF) rated researcher, has published extensively in academic journals and presented at a number of international conferences. He has been appointed as a Lead Author on the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s (IPCC) sixth assessment report (AR6), has been appointed to the UNFCCC Roster of Experts on climate change matters related to UNFCCC activities, and sits on the University of Cape Town’s pre-seed concept fund steering committee which provides support for commercialisation of research studies.
Adrian Bertrand
Practice Head: ESG Advisory, Six Capitals Advisory
Prior to co-founding Six Capitals Advisory with Alternative Prosperity in 2017, Adrian worked as Head: Africa & Middle East for the UN-supported Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). Previously, Adrian served as ESG Manager at the Government Employees Pension Fund (GEPF) from 2011 – 2015, where Adrian was responsible for managing and implementing the GEPF’s Responsible Investment programme. Through Six Capitals Advisory, Adrian currently serves as a part-time consultant to ASISA, which serves as the Secretariat for the Code for Responsible Investing in South Africa (CRISA). In this capacity, Adrian currently Chairs the CRISA Code Review Working Group which is in the process of finalising an updated CRISA Code.
Melanie Smith
Practice Head: Research & Reporting, Six Capitals Advisory
In this role, Melanie heads up the ESG research and reporting capability in supporting Six Capital’s clients, such as this South Africa-UK PACT funded project undertaken in partnership with the project consortium partners. Melanie led the Six Capitals research process into the WWF & Sanlam supported project: The Emerging Importance of the TCFD Framework for South African Companies and Investors. Melanie has recently completed her Masters in Sustainable Development at the Sustainability Institute of the University of Stellenbosch.
Cerin Maduray
Investment Analyst, WWF-SA
Cerin is an Investment Analyst within WWF-SA’s Sustainable Finance Team and Business Development Unit. Since joining WWF-SA in 2016, Cerin has been working at integrating environmental risk management principles into investment management, promoting sustainable finance and developing green finance solutions. Cerin currently sits on the investment committees for the Green Outcomes Fund and the Sanlam Living Planet Fund and is part of the WWF Team working on the Sustainable Landscape Finance Coalition.
Sefako Mathibe
Research Analyst, Six Capitals Advisory
Sefako works as a Research analyst across the various Practice Units within Six Capitals Advisory. Sefako was a key research support to the WWF & Sanlam supported project: The Emerging Importance of the TCFD Framework for South African Companies and Investors, as well as extensive research support into JSE Top 100 companies with respect to TCFD and climate risk for this South Africa-UK PACT funded project. Sefako also enables the monitoring & evaluation (M&E) function for a number of Six Capitals client and financial education projects, such as Atleha-edu NPC.
Climate Risk publications
More information about UK PACT:
In July 2020, The UK Partnering for Accelerated Climate Transitions programme (UK PACT), which supports transformational climate change projects worldwide, launched the South Africa-UK PACT country programme to support action in just transition pathways and a low-carbon economic recovery.
For more information on South Africa-UK PACT and the projects being funded in South Africa, please visit www.ukpact.co.uk/country-programme/south-africa.
More information about this UK PACT supported project
This complimentary webinar series is offered as part of the delivery of this South Africa-UK PACT project, a project in partnership with Batseta, ASISA and the JSE to support local retirement fund Principal Executive Officers, trustees, and fund members to better understand climate-related financial risks and opportunities.
The project will provide local retirement funds with the skills and tools to engage effectively with service providers to obtain information on climate-related risks and opportunities needed to make informed long-term investment decisions. For more information about the project, please click here.
Please tell us what help you need on your climate risk journey
A survey has been developed to understand the needs of local retirement & pension funds. Please complete the survey here.
A survey has been developed to understand the needs of local investment managers. Please complete the survey here.
You can read the short articles published in this series as follows:
Short article 1: Introduction to climate risk
Short article 2: Climate risk & scenario analysis
Short article 3: Climate risk & investment
Short article 4: Investment opportunities presented by the transition to low-carbon economies
You can also read the Special edition publication: Climate-related Financial Disclosure – Aligning South Africa to global best practice.
The Emerging Importance of the TCFD Framework for South African Companies and Investors
WWF South Africa and Six Capitals ESG Advisory partnered to research and produce this report in 2021. The report unpacks how the TCFD recommendations can assist both corporates and investors address climate change. Numerous stakeholders including companies, investors and industry bodies were interviewed during the research phase of the project in order to get a sense of South African corporate and investor organisations’ progress with respect to implementing the TCFD recommendations.
Download the report here.
