Rémy Estran-Fraioli, CEO of Scientific Climate Ratings (SCR), an EDHEC venture, participated in a high-level panel at the OECD Infrastructure Forum in Paris on 24 April, where he presented the agency’s cutting-edge methodology assessing the financial impact of climate exposure in infrastructure projects. 

Estran-Fraioli introduced a novel methodology developed by EDHEC Climate Institute, which assesses the financial materiality of climate risk, in the session titled “Accelerating Resilient Infrastructure”:

1. Quantifying Financial Exposure: Using a net asset value (NAV) model , infrastructure cash flows are projected and discounted without climate risks, then recalculated by integrating both macroeconomic scenarios (like GDP or inflation from NGFS or Oxford Economics) and highly granular, asset-specific physical risk data, such as flood exposure based on 10-meter precision hazard maps. The result is a comparative risk profile that helps determine climate vulnerability.
2. Evaluating the Benefits of Resilience Strategies: EDHEC’s ClimateTech database catalogues decarbonisation and resilience strategies across infrastructure subclasses, detailing both their costs (as a share of total assets) and their effectiveness (measured as reductions in potential damages). This empowers investors and policymakers to make informed decisions that maximise impact and minimize long-term losses.

The SCR CEO emphasised that such analysis is essential to prioritising investments where they deliver the greatest benefit, particularly for vulnerable populations and communities.

“Stakeholders can now critically evaluate the cost of inaction versus the cost and effectiveness of resilience strategies—and allocate investments where they can have the greatest impact on people”, he said.

The session brought together international experts to explore strategies for embedding climate resilience into infrastructure investment.

Rémy Estran-Fraioli was joined on the panel by George Karagiannis from the International Coalition for Sustainable Infrastructure (ICSI); Takahiro Konami from Japan’s Ministry of Land, Infrastructure, Transport and Tourism; Francisco Lozano Gamba of Colombia’s Financiera de Desarrollo Nacional; and Régis Thépot from the Association Française de Prévention des Catastrophes Naturelles et Technologiques (AFPCNT). The session was moderated by Robert Addison of the OECD Public Governance Directorate.

For more information on the conference, visit the OECD Infrastructure Forum website

Anthony Schrapffer, Chief Scientific Officer of Scientific Climate Ratings (SCR) and Scientific Director of the EDHEC Climate Institute (ECI), took the stage at The EC-EIB Adaptation Days 2025, held on 5–6 June. The global event was co-hosted by EDHEC Business School in Nice, France, under the auspices of the UN Ocean Conference (UNOC3).

In his keynote speech, Schrapffer presented a climate risk map for coastal infrastructure developed through SCR’s framework, introducing a pioneering approach to assessing climate risks across infrastructure assets, with a special focus on coastal exposure.

Schrapffer highlighted that coastal assets were a particular area of concern, as they represent 23% of the global investable infrastructure base and tend to carry higher concentrations of high-risk scores, primarily due to storm and flood exposure. Assessing these risks requires both climate expertise and financial modelling.

He outlined how SCR’s methodology integrates resilience measures, incorporating operational adaptation interventions into the ratings, thereby ensuring methodological credibility and reducing the risk of greenwashing. Born out of ECI, the adaptation potential is reviewed at the sector level by SCR. In one example, Brisbane Airport saw a significant improvement in its flood and storm risk profile once its resilience measures were accounted for.

“Modelled on the logic of credit ratings, these climate risk assessments are designed to support investors, asset owners, and public authorities in making more informed, climate-aligned decisions. Visibility of resilience is key. We must not only assess vulnerability, but also recognise and reward efforts to adapt”, Schrapffer explained in the session.

About the EC-EIB Adaptation Days 2025

The Adaptation Days 2025 event brought together policymakers, climate experts, public officials, and financial institutions, and was organised by the European Commission (EC) and the European Investment Bank (EIB). Now in its second year, Adaptation Days 2025 was held under the auspices of the UNOC3 in partnership with EDHEC and the ECI.

As rising sea levels, driven by global warming, intensify, coastal erosion, flooding, and saltwater intrusion pose mounting risks for millions of people worldwide. In this context, the event served as a platform to explore solutions and investment strategies for enhancing the resilience of coastal infrastructure and communities.

Access Anthony Schrapffer’s presentation at EC-EIB Adaptation Days 2025 .

Rémy Estran-Fraioli, CEO of Scientific Climate Ratings (SCR), took the stage at the Ocean Rise & Coastal Resilience Summit held in Nice, France, on Saturday, 7 June 2025 ahead of the 2025 UN Ocean Conference. He spoke at a thematic session titled “Engaging the Insurance Sector”, addressing the role of prevention and insurance in managing climate risks.

During the session, Estran-Fraioli explained how SCR complements insurers’ models by providing science-based scores on the financial materiality of climate risk, fostering a common language among stakeholders, and supporting the development of resilient infrastructure.

Key talking points included:

• Complementing rather than duplicating
  Insurers model hazards to price products; we model them to support long-term decisions by investors, public authorities, and infrastructure managers — well upstream of any risk transfer.
• Creating a common language
  Our ratings provide science-based scores on the financial materiality of climate risk — spanning over 6,000 infrastructures across 25 countries — helping align infrastructure operators, investors, and insurers, and informing insurer-policyholder dialogue.
• Highlighting and promoting resilient infrastructure
  Our reports include a dedicated section outlining potential rating improvement levers, listing resilience strategies tailored to the type and location of each infrastructure. This can pave the way for differentiated — even incentivising — underwriting policies.

The Ocean Rise and Coastal Resilience Coalition Summit aimed to bring together government representatives from coastal cities and regions and from island States threatened by rising sea levels to launch the Ocean Rise and Coastal Resilience Coalition. The summit was held in advance of the 2025 UN Ocean Conference, which focused on “Accelerating action and mobilising all actors to conserve and sustainably use the ocean”.

Rémy Estran-Fraioli, PhD, CEO of Scientific Climate Ratings (SCR), spoke at the Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE) Transition Conference & Awards in Brussels on 16 June 2025.

During the session titled “Turning Climate Science into Forward-Looking, Financially Material Insights”, Rémy presented how SCR’s methodology integrates climate risk into financial models, combining asset-level damage functions, ClimaTech-powered strategy assessments, and scenario-based Net Asset Value (NAV) projections.

The presentation offered a timely opportunity to demonstrate how science-led climate risk ratings can help investors translate uncertainty into actionable financial insight.

Organised by Investment & Pensions Europe (IPE), the Transition Conference provides a forum to explore how energy transition dynamics intersect with financial strategies, regulation, and policy. The 2025 edition focused on manager selection, the evolution of net-zero investment strategies, blended finance and the agenda of Asset Owners.

The event concluded with an awards ceremony recognising leadership in climate-aligned investment. Rémy Estran-Fraioli presented the Leadership in Energy Transition & Net Zero Award, which honours asset owners that have integrated the energy transition across a broad range of asset classes and demonstrated clear leadership in managing and implementing transition strategies. The award was presented to Railpen and accepted by Adam Gillett, Head of Sustainable Investment.

Explore our ratings born out of EDHEC Climate Institute.

Scientific Climate Ratings (SCR), an EDHEC venture, hosted its inaugural webinar on July 3, 2025, to introduce its mission, methodology, and forward-looking climate risk ratings.

The session, titled “Turning Climate Science into Financial Insights: How Our Ratings Work”, provided an overview of SCR’s science-based approach to assessing climate risk exposure and its financial materiality for private organisations, followed by an engaging Q&A with participants.

Date: July 3, 2025
Time: 16:00 CET
Location: Zoom (Online)

Presented by:
Rémy Estran-Fraioli, PhD, CEO of Scientific Climate Ratings
Mariya Peykova, Sales Director of Scientific Climate Ratings

Contact us at sales@scientificratings.com to request access to the full replay.