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 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:
- Lead cutting-edge research into emerging climate issues, enabling clients to make informed, long-term decisions for a resilient future.
- Leverage machine learning and AI techniques to enhance portfolio analytics, improving risk/return insights, scenario analysis and investment decision-making.
- 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.
- 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.
Recent Research Spotlight
Cooling Degree Days/Heating Degree Days | April 2026
Cooling degree days (CDD) are a measure of how much the daily average temperature exceeds a base temperature (such as 65°F) and is used to estimate the demand for energy needed to cool buildings. Rising temperatures are pushing CDD to new levels, signaling a steady increase in heat persistence and cooling demand. As climate patterns evolve across regions, higher CDD levels highlight where energy infrastructure may face growing operational pressure and electricity demand. Tracking these trends across future decades helps identify where heat-related risks could become increasingly material for energy systems and investment planning.
Research Focus Areas
Physical Climate Hazards
Leveraging climate models to understand future conditions
Probabilistic Risk Modelling
Estimating likelihoods and loss distributions across climate scenarios to capture uncertainty
Machine learning and AI-driven portfolio analysis
Using advanced model ensembles to detect patterns, forecast exposures and predict losses for coupled climate events across large portfolios.
Emerging Climate Issues and Hazards
Tracking new and intensifying risks that may affect assets.
Nonlinear Climate Impacts
Accounting for threshold events and tipping points where damages can accelerate abruptly.
Coupled Climate and Macroeconomic Modelling
Linking climate pathways to growth, inflation, productivity and broader economic outcomes.
Supply Chain Exposure
Including for nature-related impacts and dependencies and climate physical risk.
Financial Impact Quantification
Translating physical climate risks into expected losses and costs.
Our Insights
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 Energy
Dr. Terence Thompson
Chief Scientist, Climate Center of Excellence, Sustainable1
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.
Senior Scientist, Climate Center of Excellence
Kim Drouin is a Senior Scientist within the Climate Center of Excellence. Kim’s work centers on translating physical climate science into decision-ready hazard analytics for a broad range of stakeholders. Kim has developed a comprehensive suite of hazard metrics supporting the EU Taxonomy, spanning drought, wildfire, heat stress and heat waves, permafrost, surface winds, and snowfall. She also contributes to the team’s cloud computing capabilities, helping scale climate hazard research and production workflows.
Prior to her current role, Kim was a Postdoctoral Associate at Duke University, where her research examined large-scale climate variability and the Atlantic overturning circulation. This work continues to inform her interest in tipping point science and its implications for risk. Kim has co-authored thought leadership materials and peer-reviewed publications and is especially passionate about climate communication and clear data visualization that make complex results accessible to diverse audiences.
Kim holds a PhD in Earth and Ocean Sciences from Duke University and Bachelor’s and Master’s degrees from the University of Miami in Marine Sciences, Atmospheric Sciences, and Physical Oceanography. In 2022, Kim served on a panel to update the American Geophysical Union’s position statement on ocean research and education.
S&P Global Energy
Tim Hall, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, The Climate Center of Excellence, Sustainable1
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 Energy
Danielle Montagne, Ph.D.
Senior Scientist, Climate Research and Portfolio Analytics, Sustainable1
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
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.
S&P Global Sustainable1
Simon Parkinson
Climate Scientist, Climate Center of Excellence
Simon's work focuses on economic modeling of climate risks. Prior to S&P Global, Simon was a research scholar for 7 years at the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis (IIASA), where he worked in energy and climate change research. Simon has over 40 peer-reviewed publications and was a contributing author for the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). Simon also developed climate scenario modeling tools for financial institutions and regulators in Canada, and as a consultant he supported companies in the US and Europe in quantifying their greenhouse gas emissions.
Simon holds a Ph.D. in Mechanical Engineering from University of Victoria.
S&P Global Energy
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 Scientist, Climate Center of Excellence, Sustainable1