Celebrating 10 Years Of CWR!

Celebrating 10 Years Of CWR!  Woo-hoo … IT’S CWR’s 10-YEAR ANNIVERSARY!!! Sorry for yelling at all of you but we are incredibly excited and proud of this monumental milestone. Since starting in 2011 to embed water and climate risks into business and finance, CWR has become a leader in the water space and grown into a trusted advisor for the financial and business sectors on water and climate risks.

Global recognition has been affirmed with Debra becoming a contributing author to IPCC AR6 WG2; Dharisha providing tutorials for TCFD’s knowledge portal and Dawn advising MNCs and listco’s on their water strategies. The list goes on and on… we have come far in 10 years.

But we could not have come this far without our people – a small group of ambitious idealists who believe in making big changes by positioning ourselves strategically. So this month, despite COP26 looming on the horizon, we decided to take a break from dishing out water & climate news to reflect on our journey so far. And who better to do this with than CWR’s ex-staff who have also helped build the brand.

We have amassed quite the alumni – Feng Hu, an ESG specialist in green finance; Hubert Thieriot, the lead data scientist for the Centre for Research on Energy & Clean Air (the ones that created the COVID-19 air pollution rebound tracker); Hongqiao Liu, the China specialist at Carbon Brief; and two sustainability managers – Mark Harper at John Swire & Sons and Woody Chan at foodpanda.

They were asked a couple of questions: why did they join CWR? What do they consider as their biggest achievements or memorable events? What are the key challenges in the climate space? Plus we also sought their advice for those who want to join this space.

No spoilers here because each of them has a distinct and interesting story. However, there are a few common themes swirling … all evolving around “don’t box yourself in”, “think strategically”, and “want to change the world”. Key ingredients for a small but ambitious lot that has managed to punch above our weight. You will just have to check out their interviews!

But how can our retrospective be complete if we don’t hear from our two key leads – Dawn McGregor in Business Unusual and Dharisha Mirando in Water Risk Valuation. Each of them has a unique origin story: Dawn left a global investment bank to change the world and Dharisha started her water journey after meeting Debra at a bar in LKF.

Their personal growth together with CWR’s are impressive and the stories are inspirational: from invitations to deliver keynotes at a global fashion brand HQ in Paris to being on TV interviewed by Bloomberg to writing a report that is used to develop an industry tool for fashion or writing a series of reports that are used by banks to stress test their loan portfolios, Dawn and Dharisha’s achievements are remarkable and help lift CWR to the next level.

But all of these would not have happened if our founder Debra Tan did not decide to quit her career in finance to start CWR. She is the last common thread that appears in the reflections by staff past and present. They all thank her for her guidance along their journeys, in particular imparting the importance of strategic thinking.

But what are her own thoughts on the last 10 years? Debra shares with us the highs and lows of aiming high from surreal wins to eco-depression. If you want a behind-the-scenes tour of CWR – read this!

We also want to take this moment to thank our funders. Thank you for believing in CWR’s mission and for providing the funding support to help us catalyse the water & climate risk conversation. We definitely would not be here today without you. Plus a special shout out to ADMCF for housing us.

Last but not least, we want to thank you all – our readers, subscribers and collaborators. You have helped us build a formidable online resource that is www.chinawaterrisk.org.

We are pleased that our research and global engagements have helped build a more climate and water resilient world. And we will continue to (shamelessly) count on your support on our new and exciting projects from building resilience against coastal threats in Hong Kong and beyond to our collaboration with the arts through a series of climate dances with the Hong Kong Ballet.

10 years is a long period of time – more than the 8 years we have to keep the world from overshooting 1.5°C. Sadly, the recent news on pledges and emissions do not portend well for COP26. However, we remain cautiously optimistic as we have seen the tides change from near zero interest in water and climate risks to their mainstreaming.

But we are also realistic and urge governments, businesses and finance to prepare and plan resilience with no-regret scenario stress testing – we will be talking about this in Glasgow at the high-level Water Security under Climate Change Meeting this Friday – join us and listen in.

Hopefully, one day there will be no need for CWR to exist anymore, and we can all retire to an island retreat. But for now islands are going underwater and with adaptation lagging, there is still so much to do! So we will plough on and nimbly prance on to help finance & businesses navigate imminent threats ahead and steer them toward a softer landing.

Here’s to more adventures ahead. But now … let’s celebrate with some martinis!