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Climate Macro Strategy

ASR's Climate Macro Strategy service provides investors with the building blocks required to create a climate-aware ‘top down’ investment process, integrating climate change into views on macroeconomics, asset allocation and investment strategy. 

A MATERIAL RISK

 

Climate change is quickly becoming a key driver of asset class pricing.


Estimates suggest that physical climate change impacts could lead to over a decade of lost economic growth. The size of the Indian economy could be cut by over a third by 2050; Many Middle Eastern economies could see the size of their economies cut in half.  If the climate transition accelerates, carbon intensive industries face a significant hit to revenues.

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Green Energy Turbines

A MULTI-DECADE INVESTMENT OPPORTUNITY

 

At the same time, the scale of the necessary green transition presents a multi-decade investment opportunity – worth around $4-5 trillion per year.


Understanding the climate interactions between economics, technology, policy and markets will become critical for investors in the decades ahead.

WHAT WE OFFER

CLIMATE SCENARIO PLANNING

 

We assess a range of plausible climate transition paths, estimating the likelihood of each one. We judge their impact on growth, inflation, and asset class, market and sector returns.

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INVESTMENT THEMES

 

Climate change will create winners and losers across sovereign debt, energy, metals, agriculture and equity sectors. These range from the clean technologies that could displace fossil fuels, to the metal commodities that they will require.

We present investment ideas geared to a variety of timeframes, from long-term secular themes to shorter-term, policy-related plays.

GLOBAL CLIMATE DATABASE

 

Quantifying the top-down impact of climate change on
macro and markets is fundamental to what we do.

Clients can subscribe to a suite of charts and proprietary top-down climate indicators, covering 67 sovereigns, 50+ sectors and sub-industries and a range of commodities and other real assets.

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RECENT RESEARCH

Our weekly research notes analyse climate change and the energy transition through the lens of an investor, in six groupings: markets, macro, policy, investment themes, energy transition and strategic asset allocation.

Markets

Rare Earths: The AI, Defence & Energy Chokepoint 

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•    Rare Earth Elements are key to three investment megatrends

•    China is using its control of these metals as a geopolitical tool

•    Western response is opening up investment opportunities

Rare Earths: The AI, Defence & Energy Chokepoint 

Policy

Europe’s Clean Security Moment

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Little progress on reducing gas imports.
Clean security moment.
Food and water security – the conflict’s next casualties? 

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How the Gulf conflict could hit energy, water & food 

Energy Transition

Mercury Rising – Transition Quarterly

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Energy security is becoming a structural feature of the transition.
Technology improvements point to a clean energy surge.
European heatwaves sharpen need to track physical risks

Geopolitics and climate risk turn up the heat on resources

Macro

Will Super El Nino break climate models? 

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Super El Nino will drive warming to record levels.
Global warming is accelerating, but remains within expectations.
The physical climate hedge

A new tool to track physical climate risks

Investment Themes

The Resilience Toolkit – Thematic Quarterly

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Shocks can accelerate themes.
Two stress points: physical risk and geopolitics.
23 out of 35 thematic ETFs are outperforming the S&P YTD.

Investing through scarcity, security and climate stress

Asset Allocation

Rethinking Climate Damage

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Long Run Returns Quarterly Update 

Damage Limitation

Private Asset Returns Dispersion Higher than Listed Assets 
 

Implications of accelerating global warming 

OUR TEAM

Our team has a combined 30 years of experience working for institutions on both the sell side and buy side in London and New York. We work closely with ASR economists and strategists to leverage the best ideas across all disciplines of research.

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Michael Penn
Head of Climate Macro Strategy

Michael is Head of Climate Macro Strategy, advising investors on how to integrate climate change and natural capital into long-term macroeconomic views, strategy and asset allocation. He is based in London. Prior to joining Absolute Strategy Research, Michael was the Chief Economist and Strategist at Cohen & Steers, a Real Asset fund manager located in New York. The firm manages $100bn in assets. He was a member of the Asset Allocation Strategy Group, with a primary focus on integrating macro strategy views into positions on Infrastructure, Real Estate, Commodities and Natural Resource Equities. He spent ten years at the firm. He previously held macro strategy and economics research positions at Merrill Lynch, both in New York and London. Michael holds a Master of Science in Economics with Distinction from University College London, and a Bachelor of Science in Economics from the University of Nottingham.

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Michael Hessel
Senior Climate Macro Strategist

Michael has spent a decade at Absolute Strategy Research covering policy, political risk and long-term thematic research for institutional clients. His Climate Macro strategy research areas of focus are on global climate policy, the clean energy transition and the role of technology. Michael studied at the University of Edinburgh.

'CLIMATE-AWARE' INVESTMENT STRATEGIES

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