Climate Center of Excellence
Advancing climate, environmental, and nature research
What is the S&P Global Climate Center of Excellence?
The S&P Global Climate Center of Excellence sits within S&P Global Energy Sustainable1's Research and Methodology Team. The center is home to a group of world-class scientists and strategists dedicated to addressing the frontiers of long-term climate, environmental, and nature research and methodology development.
The Climate Center of Excellence's mission is to:
- Tackle complex methodological challenges in climate and environmental science to support long-term innovation.
- Support the next generation of science-driven thought leadership to provide intelligence to the market.
- Build external academic partnerships to inform cutting-edge research and innovation.
- Partner across S&P Global to leverage our in-house scientific and economic expertise and robust suite of data, analytics, insights and research to help drive transparency on climate and sustainability issues deemed critical by the markets.
- Cultivate learning opportunities for S&P Global employees to elevate science-based thinking on climate and sustainability issues throughout the company.
We are dedicated to ensuring that S&P Global climate and sustainability solutions are grounded in best-in-class science, data, and methodologies, providing decision-useful intelligence to our customers and partners, including investors, banks, companies, and sustainability solution providers.
Research Focus Areas
Physical Climate Hazards
Earth Systems Tipping Points
Nonlinear Climate Impacts
Probabilistic Risk Modelling
Coupled Climate and Macroeconomic Modelling
Supply Chain Exposure
Including for nature-related impacts and dependencies and climate physical risk.
Scope 3 Emissions
Financial Impact Quantification
Meet the Team
The Climate Center of Excellence provides best-in-class, globally minded scientific expertise across climate, environmental, nature, and economic disciplines.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Dr. Terence Thompson
Chief Science Officer
Terry leads the overall climate science and socioeconomic strategy of the Science Team. He co-founded The Climate Service, leading the development of the TCS software platform and methodology using his over 20 years of experience in advancing climate analysis for industry. Prior to S&P Global, Terry led LMI's climate program, established the Intelligent systems Laboratory at Gould Electronics, and was the former VP of Energy & Environment at Metron Aviation (an Airbus subsidiary) serving as a principal investigator for many NASA and FAA environmental studies.
Terry holds a doctorate and masters in Biophysics from University of Rochester Medical School
S&P Global Sustainable1
Kimberley Drouin, Ph.D.
Climate Scientist
Kim's work revolves around modeling physical hazards in the climate space. Currently, her research focuses on developing new wildfire, drought, and tropical cyclone models. Prior to S&P, Drouin was a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University, working on large-scale patterns of climate variability and the Atlantic Overturning circulation. Drouin has co-authored seven peer-reviewed publications. In 2022, Drouin served on a panel to update the American Geophysical Union’s (AGU) position statement on ocean research and education.
Kim holds a PhD in Earth and Ocean Sciences from Duke University.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Tim Hall, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist at The Climate Service
Tim's work focuses on developing physical hazard models related to extreme weather and climate. Prior to S&P Global, Hall was a staff scientist for 20 years at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where he worked in climate change research.
Tim's work focuses on developing physical hazard models related to extreme weather and climate. Prior to S&P Global, Hall was a staff scientist for 20 years at NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies, where he worked in climate change research. Hall has over 60 peer-reviewed publications and was a lead author on the 2017 National Climate Assessment Report. As part of his research, Hall developed a tropical cyclone hazard model, which Horizons now uses to assess the climate evolution of hurricane hazard. He also served as consultant to the Florida Hurricane Catastrophe Fund and several risk modeling companies, reinsurers, and ILS investors.
Tim holds a Ph.D. in Physics from Cornell University
S&P Global Sustainable1
Tom Karl
Climate Scientist – Consultant
Tom, an independent scholar and owner of Climate and Weather LLC, boasts a distinguished 42-year career at NOAA. Serving as Director of NOAA’s National Centers for Environmental Information, he also chaired the US Global Change Research Program (2011-2016). Holding a B.S. in meteorology from Northern Illinois University and an M.S. from the University of Wisconsin, he received an honorary Doctorate of Humane Letters in 2002.
A prolific author with over 200 peer-reviewed articles, he's a leading figure in climate research. Karl played key roles in five Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) Assessments, contributing to the IPCC team awarded the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize. Recognized as a fellow by the American Meteorological Society and the American Geophysical Union, he received numerous accolades, including Presidential Rank Awards and the AMS “Soumi Award.” Elected AMS President in 2007, Karl's contributions extend to leading U.S. National Climate Assessments and serving on National Academy Committees.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Danielle Montagne, Ph.D.
Climate Scientist
Danielle's work focuses on developing hazard models related to extreme weather events and investigating the economic impacts of climate events. She has contributed to multiple research projects including prediction of drought events, wildfire conditions, probabilistic distributions of climate hazards, and temperature effects on GDP projections. Danielle recently graduated from Duke University with a Ph.D. in Sociology.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Megan Robinson
Head of Integration
Megan leads the integration work of the Climate CoE, enabling cross-divisional climate research and climate-related initiatives. At The Climate Service, she served as Chief of Staff. Prior to S&P Global and TCS, she was the Chief Operating Officer at The Collider, a nonprofit focused on catalyzing market-driven climate solutions, and a Policy & Program Advisor at NOAA National Centers for Environmental Information.
Robinson holds an MPA from the Maxwell School of Citizenship and Public Affairs at Syracuse University, and an MS in Environmental Science from SUNY College of Environmental Science and Forestry.
S&P Global Sustainable1
James Salo, Ph.D.
Head of Environmental Research and ESG Modelling
With 20+ years of experience in environmental research and data strategy, James Salo is the Head of Environmental Research and ESG Modeling at S&P Global Horizons, a leading provider of ESG data, analytics, and insights. He leads a team of experts who maintain, enhance, and extend the information eco-system of corporate environmental data available to clients and support the organization's ESG modeling and quantitative research needs.
James is passionate about helping investors, companies, and policymakers understand and manage the environmental risks and opportunities in their portfolios, supply chains, and operations. He has a PhD in Environmental Science and Policy from Oxford University, where he focused on the measurement of corporate environmental performance and how these data are used within financial markets. He also has a BA and an MA in Environmental Science and Policy from Clark University. He has published multiple papers and articles on topics such as greenhouse gas accounting, environmental finance, sustainability and investing, and ecosystem service valuation. He is a recognized leader and innovator in his field, with specialties in environmental performance metrics, and environmental and carbon footprint analysis.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Alexandria Jones, Ph.D.
Climate Scientist
Alex is a climate scientist whose work currently focuses on extreme heat hazards. Prior to working at S&P Global, Alex completed her PhD in Earth and Climate Sciences at Duke University, where she studied the role of oceanic plankton in sequestering carbon from the atmosphere.
Alex has co-authored nine peer-reviewed publications and in her PhD work she spent more than three months at sea collecting data in remote regions including the sub-arctic North Pacific, North Atlantic, and Western Antarctic Peninsula.
To Address Key Research Questions, we Collaborate Across S&P Global to Partner with Leading Experts
S&P Global Sustainable1
To push the frontiers in climate research, S&P Global scientists are diving into some of the most complex data and modelling challenges in the physical and economic sciences. We are bridging multi-disciplinary gaps and global perspectives to enable advancements in our science-driven methodologies providing actionable information on climate-related risks and opportunities.
Dr. Terence Thompson
Chief Science Officer
In addition to licensing data for academic use, S&P Global Sustainable1 welcomes partnerships with academia in cutting-edge areas of research. If you are interested in exploring a partnership, please reach out with the proposed partnership scope to the Climate Center of Excellence ClimateCOE@spglobal.com
Due to time and resource constraints, priority will be given to well-focused projects that provide a good fit with S&P Global Sustainable1’s long-term, multi-year research and innovation priorities.