Episode 9: Actuaries in Climate Change with Sharanjit Paddam
“You need to learn the language of climate change. You need to understand what are the problems people are trying to solve. It doesn't take a lot of research or hard work to do that. But you do need to have that basic fluency.
You don't have to be a climate scientist, but you need to understand the science, you need to apply the science, and that's fundamentally what we're doing.”
Sharanjit Paddam,
Experienced Actuary
Sharanjit Paddam is an actuary with nearly 30 years’ experience in actuarial consulting in the UK and Australia. He is a Fellow of both the Institute of Actuaries of Australia and the UK Institute and Faculty of Actuaries.
Sharanjit is a leading expert on climate change, receiving the prestigious award of “Insurance Leader of the Year” in 2022 by the Australian and New Zealand Institute of Insurance and Finance for his work on championing action on climate change.
Currently, Sharanjit co-leads Finity’s Climate & Sustainability Risk practice and advises clients such as insurers, banks, investors and governments on climate risk assessment, management, strategy and reporting. He’s contributed to numerous national and international initiatives on the management of climate risk, and even gave a TEDxSydney talk on climate change!
In this interview I asked Sharanjit about:
What motivated him to work in climate change and why he's stayed in the space,
The biggest challenge he's faced as an actuary working in climate change,
How he helps actuaries build their skills in the climate risk space,
His experience delivering a talk on the TEDx stage,
His top tips for actuaries considering a career move into the climate change space.
Connect with Sharanjit on LinkedIn.
Watch his TedX Talk here. Learn more about his work in climate change here.
