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Events & Webinars

Climate science for business decision making: A meeting of the minds on the climate transition

Webinar
  • Nov 13, 2024
    12:00-1:00 PM EST
  • Virtual

This event was co-hosted with the CPA Ontario Centre for Corporate Reporting & Professionalism.

For business leaders and investors, assessing the threat of climate-related weather events and disruptive environmental changes can be confusing, time consuming and expensive. For this webinar event, Dr. Tanya Fiedler, Scientia Fellow at the University of New South Wales, a pioneering expert in the field of climate risk accounting and accountability, joined us in conversation with Meigan Terry, Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability, Social Impact and Communications Officer, Scotiabank.
 
They explored where financial decision makers can go wrong when interpreting climate science and considered new methods to ensure research from the climate sciences, engineering and economics can be translated for businesses grappling with the uncertainties of climate change.  

Moderator

Meigan Terry

Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability, Social Impact and Communications Officer, Scotiabank

Meigan Terry is the Senior Vice President and Chief Sustainability, Social Impact and Communications Officer at Scotiabank. In this role, she leads the strategic execution of the company’s Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) and sustainability strategy, ScotiaRISE, the Bank’s social impact program as well as Scotiabank’s enterprise-wide stakeholder communications in support of the Bank’s strategy.

Meigan joined Scotiabank in 2018. Over the course of her career at the Bank, she has expanded her mandate and delivered a number of critical initiatives including: the creation of ScotiaRISE, our 10-year initiative to invest $500 million to foster economic resilience among disadvantaged groups; Spark, our Employee Giving and Volunteering platform and, Scotiabank’s Climate Strategy.

Throughout her career, she has delivered social impact, sustainability, global communications, brand management, corporate affairs, and employee engagement for iconic global brands. Prior to joining Scotiabank, she was Senior Vice President, Corporate Affairs and Communications with Virgin Atlantic in the U.K. where she managed all aspects of communications, brand management, public policy, government affairs and social media. Meigan also led Virgin Atlantic’s sustainability, environment and community investment programs, in addition to acting as executive sponsor for the Virgin Atlantic Foundation. Meigan has also held senior communications roles at BlackBerry, and WPP Consultancy Hill & Knowlton in London.

Meigan chairs Scotiabank’s Climate Steering Committee and serves on the Advisory Board for the Institute for Sustainable Finance (Queen’s University).

Presenter

Tanya Fiedler

Scientia Fellow, UNSW Institute for Climate Risk and Response and School of Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, UNSW Business School

Tanya Fiedler is the Scientia Fellow at the UNSW Institute for Climate Risk and Response and School of Accounting, Auditing and Taxation, UNSW Business School.

Tanya is recognised internationally as a pioneering expert in the field of climate risk accounting and accountability. Her research is interdisciplinary and collaborative and considers the translation and integration of information derived from climate and earth system sciences to accounting values and practice.

Tanya has published in leading interdisciplinary and accounting journals, including Nature Climate Change, Environmental Research Letters, Management Accounting Research and Accounting, Organizations and Society, and has attracted significant government and industry funding, including as Chief Investigator on an Australian Research Council Discovery Grant.

Tanya also engages deeply with industry, standard setters, and regulators. Her work has been cited in the 2023 Economic Report of the President of the United States, as well as by the World Bank and Asian Development Bank. Tanya is currently working with organisations, including one of Australia’s largest financial institutions, and Ernst & Young, on projects relating to the internal and external measurement of climate-related risk.

Tanya is regularly invited to speak on panels and roundtables both in Australia and internationally, and contributes to the media (ABC News, Financial Review, NYTimes, Bloomberg).