Transition Finance 101 – Expert Hour with Elizabeth Harnett

Join us on Zoom, Thursday, August 28, at 12:00 pm ET.

JFI’s Social Wealth SVP, Paul Katz, will host Elizabeth Harnett, Research and Impact Expert on Climate-Aligned Finance at the Rocky Mountain Institute, for an Expert Hour conversation. The session will explore what transition finance is, why it matters, and how we can make it happen.

View the recording on Youtube here.

Elizabeth Harnett

Elizabeth is a research and impact expert with RMI’s Center for Climate-Aligned Finance. Her work includes the design and execution of novel research and thought leadership aimed at helping financial institutions to align their investment and lending decisions with the goals of the Paris Agreement and the net-zero transition. Prior to joining RMI, she worked as a lead researcher at the Oxford Sustainable Finance Program within the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford. In this role, she contributed to both academic research and teaching on sustainable finance. She also spent two years seconded part-time from Oxford to the secretariat of the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund and One Planet Asset Managers Initiatives. As a technical advisor to the groups, she supported 34 financial institutions with $30 trillion in assets under management to better integrate climate-related risks and opportunities into their investment decision-making.

Paul Katz

As Senior Vice President in Social Wealth, Paul leads an international team that helps public financial institutions drive sustainable and equitable growth, particularly in low- and middle-income countries. Partnering with diverse stakeholders, including sovereign wealth funds (SWFs), national development banks (NDBs), civil society groups, philanthropy, and industry, the Social Wealth team works to develop, socialize, and implement innovative strategies to leverage public assets in service of national development goals.

Paul’s track record includes incubating and scaling new initiatives, from sovereign wealth fund governance to energy transition financing and shareholder democracy, that bridge research, policy, and technology to empower communities and public officials. He is fluent in English, Portuguese, and Spanish, and can strain to keep up in French. Paul holds a PhD in Latin American political history from Columbia and a BA summa cum laude in history and literature from Harvard and has completed specializations and fellowships at research institutions in Brazil, Argentina, and France.

RMI

Rocky Mountain Institute (RMI) is an independent, nonpartisan nonprofit founded in 1982 that is now active in more than 60 countries globally. Its goal is to transform global energy systems through market-driven solutions to secure a prosperous, resilient, clean energy future for all. In collaboration with businesses, policymakers, funders, communities, and other partners, RMI drives investment to scale clean energy solutions, reduce energy waste, and boost access to affordable clean energy in ways that enhance security, strengthen the economy, and improve people’s livelihoods. 

JFI

The Jain Family Institute (JFI) is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit applied research organization founded in 2014 by Bobby Jain. JFI applies the instruments and frameworks of finance to issues of global policy concern. Working to understand and coordinate international channels of public and private capital, the institute applies data, modeling, and simulation tools to the most pressing challenges of our time.