In this episode of ESG Talks, Arianne Schreier from KBRA’s ESG team is joined by Donna Halverstadt, a Managing Director on KBRA’s Insurance team. Arianne and Donna chat about Donna’s recent research report titled, “AI in Insurance: The Future is Now.” This report takes a deep dive into how AI is transforming the insurance industry, the opportunities it presents, and the risks insurers need to manage. AI is becoming an increasingly important tool in insurance, with applications spanning underwriting, claims processing, fraud detection, and customer service. KBRA’s research highlights AI’s potential to boost efficiency, improve productivity, and strengthen customer relationships. But at the same time, it underscores some key risks—such as regulatory challenges, data privacy concerns, and bias in AI-driven decision-making.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Arianne Schreier from KBRA’s ESG team is joined once again by Gordon Kerr, European Macro Strategist and host of KBRA’s Conversations in European Credit podcast. As a follow up to a previous episode titled “Unpacking the New Digital Euro with the Central Bank of Ireland”, Arianne and Gordon discuss KBRA’s perspective on the ECB’s new digital euro initiative. They dive into the risks, opportunities, and implications of a central bank digital currency (CBDC) from a credit and macroeconomic standpoint.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Arianne Schreier from KBRA’s ESG team is joined by Jason Roche from the Central Bank of Ireland. Jason, who heads up the team within the digital euro unit at the Central Bank of Ireland, and Arianne discuss the digital landscape in the euro area, and specifically, the ECB’s new digital euro. When introduced, the digital euro will impact everything from banking to liquidity to cybersecurity and essentially, will impact how we pay for things. The digital euro represents an exciting new dynamic for the marketplace, and we are pleased to bring to you a conversation on the latest new technology.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Arianne Schreier, an Associate Director on KBRA’s ESG team, interviews Ryan Mensing, Associate General Counsel on KBRA’s Regulatory Affairs team. Arianne and Ryan explore the rapidly evolving landscape of ESG ratings, focusing on the UK’s proposal to regulate ESG rating providers and the future of the Securities and Exchange Commission’s (SEC) ESG agenda in the U.S. They discuss why these changes are important for investors and how they might shape the global ESG framework. Notably, KBRA does not offer ESG ratings products—instead, within KBRA’s credit ratings, the focus is exclusively on ESG factors that are directly relevant to credit risk analysis. 

In this episode of ESG Talks, Arianne Schreier, an Associate Director on KBRA’s ESG team, chats with Gordon Kerr, Head of European Research and host of KBRA’s Conversations in European Credit podcast. Arianne and Gordon discuss a recent KBRA research report, “Offshore Wind: Opportunities and Challenges to Irish Development.” The report explores Ireland’s renewable energy market and how the country's ambitious renewable energy targets could become a realistic proposition in the coming years. Offshore wind energy has already played a prominent role in Danish, UK, and other European markets, and it now offers an emerging opportunity for transforming Ireland's energy landscape. However, significant obstacles remain, including political, regulatory, and commercial challenges. The podcast conversation covers key takeaways from the report and implications for the future.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Arianne Schreier, an Associate Director on KBRA’s ESG team, interviews Chris Poinsatte, the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for the Dallas Fort Worth, or DFW, Airport. Chris is a leader of ESG in the airport industry, with responsibilities that include finance, strategic planning, performance measurement and information technology at DFW. Chris is also leading an industry-wide effort to develop an ESG framework and metrics for North American airports as chair of a task group working within the Airports Council International North America, or ACI-NA. In April of this year, this task group published a white paper titled “Environment, Social and Governance: An Introduction to Performance and Risk Management Metrics for North American Airports” to be used as a guide to address the growing demand for ESG information from financial stakeholders within the airport industry, and to help North American airports better understand ESG and the types of ESG information North American airports may want to track and report. 

In this episode of ESG Talks, Arianne Schreier, an Associate Director on KBRA’s ESG team chats with Andrea Torres Villanueva, an Associate Director on KBRA’s Funds team. Arianne and Andrea discuss the issues and risks surrounding governance controls in the funds space from the perspective of a credit rating analyst. They highlight a notable example of what can happen when a fund does not have appropriate operational management in place to control for these risks, as well as the due diligence that KBRA employs through the credit rating process to mitigate and safeguard against these risks.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler introduces Arianne Schreier, an Associate on KBRA’s ESG team, who will be taking over as host of the ESG Talks podcast as Emilie transitions to a new role within KBRA. The two will also be joined by Pat Welch, KBRA’s Chief ESG and Ratings Policy Officer, to chat about the outlook for ESG over the next year and how KBRA’s approach makes the firm uniquely prepared for what’s to come. 

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler, a Director on KBRA’s ESG team chats with Ken Egan, from KBRA’s Sovereigns team. Ken and Emilie recently published a research report, “European Climate Transition: Cost Burden and Risk of Slowing Progress.” The piece provides an overview of the EU’s climate transition plan and then delves into the cost for the region to transition, including at the member-state level. Amid high inflation and the increased cost of living in the EU, it also highlights the growing backlash against climate regulation in the region, given the high cost of implementation and the often-burdensome regulation requirements. Ken and Emilie talk through the key takeaways from the piece and go through the implications of the report’s findings.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler, a Director on KBRA’s ESG team interviews Dr. Greg Characklis. Dr. Characklis serves as William R. Kenan, Jr. Distinguished Professor in the Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering at the University of North Carolina (UNC) at Chapel Hill. He is also Director of the Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems, a research center that bridges the Gillings School of Global Public Health and the UNC Institute for the Environment, and is focused on translating environmental events such as floods, droughts and heatwaves into financial outcomes. The Center is currently engaged in projects funded by National Science Foundation, Department of Energy and the state of North Carolina to quantify the financial risks of extreme environmental events in a number of economic sectors, including water utilities, power utilities, agriculture, inland navigation (like the Mississippi River) and real estate. The Center’s research is highly interdisciplinary, drawing on the natural sciences, engineering and economics to develop an improved understanding of environmental financial risk, as well as new tools and strategies for managing it.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Pat Welch, KBRA’s Chief ESG and Ratings Policy Officer, interviews Michael Kashani, Managing Director and Head of ESG Credit at Apollo. Michael is responsible for supporting ESG integration across the Credit business as well as further incorporating ESG into Apollo’s lending and other non-control investments processes. Michael currently represents Apollo across several industry initiatives, including as the inaugural Steering Committee Chair of the ESG Integrated Disclosure Project (IDP). The ESG IDP is an industry initiative bringing together leading lenders in the private credit and syndicated loan markets to improve transparency and accountability. The group’s goal is to promote greater harmonization and consistency of disclosure of key ESG indicators by borrowers in private credit and syndicated loan transactions.

In this episode, Emilie Nadler, a Director on KBRA’s ESG team, chats with Gordon Kerr, KBRA’s Head of European Research and host of KBRA’s Conversations in European Credit podcast. Gordon and Emilie chat about the most recent United Nations Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP28). This year’s event took place in Dubai and ran from the 30th of November through the 12th of December. Emilie and Gordon give an overview of the key takeaways of COP28 including fossil fuel interests at the event, discussions around carbon capture and storage, and divisions over the language of the final text.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler, a Director on KBRA’s ESG team, interviews Lisa Peto from Mindset. Mindset is a bipartisan public policy firm that blends thoughtful research and analysis, strategic advisory services, and sophisticated advocacy to address the challenges and opportunities their clients encounter in Washington. Given the continued focus on ESG in public policy circles, Mindset also helps its clients navigate the evolving suite of ESG policy issues, leveraging their deep expertise in financial services, energy, environment, and other relevant policy arenas. Emilie and Lisa talk about the state of ESG disclosure regulation in the U.S. including California’s recent climate disclosure bill as well as the status of the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC)’s climate disclosure proposal. 

In this episode of ESG Talks, Luigi Griffo, Senior Director of KBRA’s European Investor Relations team, interviews Sabrina Fox, CEO of the European Leveraged Finance Association (ELFA). ELFA is a buyside-only trade association that acts as a voice for the investor community and seeks to create a more transparent, efficient, and resilient leveraged finance market. Sabrina is a recognized expert in European leveraged finance and is focused improving disclosure standards and educating market participants on the importance of lender protections in documentation. Luigi and Sabrina chat about ESG in leveraged finance, the challenges and opportunities in the market, and ELFA’s upcoming Annual Conference on 14 November in London.  

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler, a Director on KBRA’s ESG team interviews Kyle Purcell and Ben Vivari, Co-Founders of Till Investors. Till Investors empowers its audience with straightforward guidance on impact investing, working with both investors and organizations to find investments that fit their values and mission. This fall, Kyle and Ben are releasing their first book, “Sustainable Investing: An ESG Starter Kit for Everyday Investors.” Emilie, Kyle, and Ben chat about the current challenges in ESG investing and how Till investors works to align its clients’ interests with their ESG goals.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler, a Director on KBRA’s ESG team interviews Curtis Shuck, founder and Chairman of the Well Done Foundation. The Well Done Foundation’s is working to fight climate change through plugging orphaned or abandoned oil and gas wells. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates there are approximately 3.5 million unplugged abandoned wells scattered throughout the United States. The Well Done Foundation works with farmers and landowners, local and state governments, corporations and not-for-profit organizations to locate abandoned wells, measure and document the CO2 emissions, then plug the wells and restore the surrounding surface area to its original state. For the past 30+ years, Curtis has passionately focused his extensive public service and private sector careers on Oil and Energy related transportation project development, capital project delivery and business development activities in the Pacific Northwest and the Mid‐Continent. Curtis founded the Well Done Foundation after seeing firsthand the impacts of orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells on communities and the environment. 

For more information on the Well Done Foundation’s work, view the Smithsonian Channel’s episode highlighting abandoned oil wells.

In this episode of ESG Talks, Emilie Nadler, a Director on KBRA’s ESG team, interviews Bruce Kahn. Dr. Kahn is an Adjunct Professor at Columbia University’s the Earth Institute, in their Sustainability Management program, and is also a Senior Portfolio Manager at Shelton Capital Management. He has an extensive background in investment management with an emphasis in sustainable investing, most notably at MSCI, Macquarie, Sustainable Insight Capital Management, Deutsche Asset Management, and Smith Barney. Bruce also served as the Chair of the Finance Committee of the Robert and Patricia Switzer Foundation for ten years and has served on numerous advisory boards across the Sustainable Investment industry, including the USSIF, SASB and NREL.