Overview

EDHEC Climate Institute (ECI) is an interdisciplinary centre housed within EDHEC Business School. It consolidates EDHEC’s climate-related research under one roof to support public and private decision-makers in adapting to and managing climate change in financial contexts.

Focus and research agenda

ECI’s research spans six domains: Physical Risks, Transition Risks, Resilience & Transition Technologies, Climate Scenarios, Green Assets, and Climate Regulation & Policies. In the physical risks stream, it develops models for climate hazards’ impact on infrastructure, real estate and equities over time and space. Transition-risk research explores regulatory change, supply chain (especially Scope 3) emissions, consumer behaviour and technological disruption. Green assets research quantifies climate-related risk across infrastructure, real assets and listed companies. The institute’s regulation and policies work evaluates disclosure frameworks, climate regulation, and standard-setting. Its resilience & transition technologies pillar includes the ClimaTech initiative, which classifies and assesses more than 100 decarbonisation and adaptation strategies across infrastructure subclasses. ECI also develops climate scenarios with probabilistic approaches, increasing sectoral and regional granularity beyond typical benchmarks.

Tools, visualisations and applications

To bridge research and practice, ECI offers interactive tools and data visualisations. The EXCITE emulator allows users to simulate temperature trajectories under varied emissions pathways. The EDHEC-CLIRMAP platform projects regional economic impacts of temperature change on gross regional product (GRP) under different scenarios. The ClimaTech database serves as a central repository for infrastructure strategies and technologies, aiding decision-makers in resilience and decarbonisation planning.

Structure, partnerships and ventures

ECI is overseen by an advisory board of academic, regulatory and industry experts, ensuring rigour and relevance. It emerged from consolidating prior EDHEC climate-oriented initiatives under the Generations 2050 strategy. ECI nurtures spin-outs: one key venture is Scientific Climate Ratings, which produces forward-looking climate risk ratings grounded in ECI’s methods and data, initially for infrastructure assets and soon for listed equities. Another venture is Scientific Portfolio, offering tools and metrics to integrate financial and non-financial (climate) information into portfolio construction. Through its research, open tools and institutional partnerships, EDHEC Climate Institute plays a pivotal role in blending climate science with financial decision-making to advance sustainable finance.

Mission and ambitions

The EDHEC Climate Institute (ECI) focuses on helping private and public decision-makers manage climate-related financial risks and make the most of financial tools to support the transition to a low-emission economy that is more resilient to climate change.

It has a long track record as an independent and critical reference centre in helping long-term investors to understand and manage the financial implications of climate change on asset prices and the management of investments and climate action policies.

The institute has also developed an expertise in physical risks, developing proprietary research frameworks and innovative approaches. ECI is also conducting advanced research on climate transition risks, with a focus on supply chain emissions (Scope 3), consumer choices, and emerging technologies.

As part of its mission, ECI collaborates with academic partners, businesses, and financial players to establish targeted research partnerships. This includes making research outputs, publications, and data available in open source to maximise impact and accessibility.

The EDHEC Climate Institute gratefully acknowledges the support that the Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS) has provided to its green infrastructure research.