October 4-5, 2010 – Columbia University
This closed-door conference co-organized by the Sovereign Wealth Fund Research Initiative and the Committee on Global Thought at Columbia University explores how SWFs and long term investors can provide investment solutions that reduce the risk of banking, climate, energy, and development crises, and how they can monetize their comparative advantage as long-term, socially responsible investors.
The conference aims to:
– explore how SWFs and other Long Term Investors can provide investment solutions that reduce the risk of future banking, climate, energy and development crises
– explore how SWFs and other Long Term Investors can monetize their comparative advantage as long-run, socially responsible investors
SWFs and other long term investors are playing an increasingly important role on the global stage, and these investors share distinctive characteristics. They:
- are state-owned
- typically have a longer-term outlook than other investment funds, with minimal short-term liabilities and little redemption risk
- are exposed to major climate and energy risks
- are mainly located in developing countries
These characteristics of SWFs pose major challenges, but also open many opportunities for addressing global governance and rights issues, and for managing financial and climate crises.
The conference will convene leading scholars, working at the intersection of finance, international economics, global governance and climate change, to collaborate with leading SWF and pension fund managers and policy makers to pursue a deeper exploration of these issues.
Except for some keynote addresses, the conference will consist of closed-door panel sessions and paper presentations to facilitate an open dialogue between academics, practitioners and policy-makers.
Topics to be discussed include:
- benchmarks and standards for Sovereign Wealth Funds
- SWFs and climate risk
- SWFs and global governance
- SWFs as long-term public investors
- SWFs and inflation risk
The conference is a partnership project of the Sovereign Wealth Fund Research Initiative at the University Paris-Dauphine. The goal of the Research Initiative is to create a research program dedicated to the key opportunities and challenges faced by Sovereign Wealth Funds and other long term investors.