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Big news to share!

Thu Oct 05, 2017 5:50 pm

As some of you may already know, earlier this year, the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy was approached by one of the Maryland State Delegates to determine if the school had any enterprising graduate students who would be willing to help them look into how adequately the Maryland State Pension and Retirement System is addressing the potential risks posed by climate change to the pension fund. My name was one of two that was put forward for the project.

As a result, I am co-author on a high profile report that examines the potential impact of climate risk on Maryland's $47 billion pension and retirement system (SRPS). We examined, among other things, what SRPS is currently doing, what the best investment practices are among a range of domestic and foreign pension and retirement systems, and provide some insight into things that SRPS would be advised to consider.

I've been working on it since the start of this year, and it was officially published on the Center of Global Sustainability (CGS) website today. Accompanying this will be an op-ed in the Baltimore Sun, and a public forum held in the University of Maryland's School of Public Policy in early October with some high profile speakers.

If you'd like to know more about the report, you can find the CGS news release here:

http://www.cgs.umd.edu/news/2017/10/5/m ... mate-risks

The report is available to view or download here:

http://www.cgs.umd.edu/publication

Re: Big news to share!

Fri Oct 06, 2017 1:48 pm

Very cool, nice work!

Re: Big news to share!

Fri Oct 06, 2017 2:51 pm

Excellent! Congratulations!

Re: Big news to share!

Sun Oct 08, 2017 6:34 pm

That's awesome! Major accolades are in order. I'm really curious about your findings -- gonna have a look for your executive summary.

Big question: How much does this count toward your thesis?

Re: Big news to share!

Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:08 am

Kookookachoo wrote:That's awesome! Major accolades are in order. I'm really curious about your findings -- gonna have a look for your executive summary.

Big question: How much does this count toward your thesis?


Thanks Kook! The answer to that, unfortunately, is that it doesn't count at all. This was a project I worked on as part of my graduate assistantship. For my thesis, I'm going to be working with the GEF (Global Environment Facility) to examine how to best prioritize international funding for conservation and biodiversity preservation activities based off of geospatial analysis of satellite data.

Re: Big news to share!

Tue Oct 10, 2017 9:33 am

My fellow authors and I recently received a shout out from Maryland Delegate Marc Korman on Facebook and in his monthly newsletter, in which he mentions that he plans to introduce legislation incorporating many of the idea from our report.

Re: Big news to share!

Tue Oct 10, 2017 1:52 pm

Right on bro! Sounds like your career is taking off quick!

Re: Big news to share!

Tue Oct 10, 2017 2:19 pm

:clap:

Re: Big news to share!

Tue Oct 10, 2017 7:00 pm

Irm, that is awesome. I may bug you for guidance on geospatial analysis.

Re: Big news to share!

Fri Nov 17, 2017 9:32 am

:D congrats!

Re: Big news to share!

Tue Nov 28, 2017 9:31 pm

Late to the party here but that's GREAT to hear Irm!

Re: Big news to share!

Mon May 28, 2018 9:09 am

As you may recall, I co-authored a report that was published last fall which examined the risk that climate change poses to the Maryland state retirement and pension system. The findings from that report led to the introduction of new legislation in the state of Maryland, MD HB993, earlier this year.

I'm pleased to report that HB993 passed the Maryland House and Senate in April, was approved by the Governor on May 15th, and officially becomes a law on July 1st of this year!

The new law will require the State Retirement and Pension System (SRPS) Board of Trustees to adopt new policies regarding the management of risk to SRPS (including climate risk), and requires them to submit annual risk assessment reports. It also provides the State Retirement Agency (SRA) with up to $400,000 of additional funding annually to expand its existing risk management system to hire consultants with expertise in assessing climate risk.

While I was initially disheartened to see that the word 'climate' was struck from much of the final bill, after reading over the final marked up version, I believe the enacted law may be stronger than the one that was initially proposed. It still requires analysis of climate risk, but now requires it annually, instead of every four years, and as mentioned above, provides annual funding for a climate risk expert.

You can see the final (marked up) bill here: http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2018RS/Chapters_noln/CH_769_hb0993e.pdf

A more easily understandable fiscal and policy note describing the bill can be found here: http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/2018RS/fnotes/bil_0003/hb0993.pdf

And in case you didn't see it before, the report that I co-wrote which led to the introduction and passage of HB993 can be found here: https://works.bepress.com/wes_hanson/9/

Re: Big news to share!

Mon May 28, 2018 9:13 am

That's great Irm!

:clap: :clap: :clap:
:drunkrene: :dance:

Re: Big news to share!

Mon May 28, 2018 1:33 pm

Makin' the law, makin' the law! :super:

Re: Big news to share!

Mon May 28, 2018 9:24 pm

That's incredible Irm, way to go dude!

Re: Big news to share!

Tue May 29, 2018 3:08 pm

That's awesome,Irm, nice work and congrats!
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