Climate finance and hydrogen economy

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Nobel Prize in Economics Robert Engle visited Comillas Pontifical University to take part in the seminar “Climate Finance and the Hydrogen Economy 2023”. In the meeting, organised by the Chair for Low Carbon Hydrogen Studies in collaboration with the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration (Comillas ICADE), the professor emeritus of the NYU Stern School of Business in New York, spoke about greenwashing, portfolios and long-term risk, among other issues.

During his speech, he also talked about the fossil fuel business, "which is in decline", and pointed out that "climate change mitigation policies are based on decarbonising the global economy", so "the risks that this transition could entail due to price increases in the face of shrinking demand" must be monitored.

The seminar was opened by the dean of the Faculty of Economics and Business Administration, Mª Teresa Corzo, and the codirector of the chair, Isabel Figuerola-Ferretti, who also took part with a presentation.

This seminar, the result of the collaboration between the chair and Comillas ICADE, and with the sponsorship of AMFRESH Group, brought together experts from different fields to look for a combination of solutions that favour a green transition and mitigate climate change, and to evaluate risks and investment opportunities that arise in a constantly changing climate environment.

In addition to Engle, the seminar counted on the presence of well-known experts, both national and international, such as José-Luis Peydró, Clara Isabel González Martínez, Ricardo Gimeno, Alfredo Ibáñez, Fernando Zapatero, Rod McCrorie, Jesús Gonzalo, Gabriel Pérez Quirós, David Coca, Tipo Gerres, Rafael Cossent Arín, Ignacio Segarra Tamarit, and Ioannis Paraskevopoulos.

Engle's visit

Robert Engle, who was awarded the Nobel Prize in 2003 "for his methods of analysis of economic time series with ARCH time-varying volatility", enjoyed a few intense days at Comillas in which he participated, in addition to the seminar organised by the chair, in other meetings and conferences. Among them, Engle gave a master class for the students of the four graduating classes of the DBA in Management and Technology. He also signed Comillas' book of honour.