CE²-Conference - Scientific program

CE² 2026 Scientific Program

The CE² 2026 program will span four days, from December 15 to 18, 2026, and will offer a rich and diverse scientific program designed to foster dialogue and exchange among researchers, academics, and practitioners working on environmental econometrics, climate change, energy, agriculture, and related fields. The program will feature one plenary session, delivered by Prof. Peter Nijkamp, and three keynote sessions with distinguished scholars Prof. Anil Bera, Prof. Sophie Dabo, and Prof. Karima Kourtit. In addition, the conference will include 20 invited sessions, several contributed sessions composed of papers selected from the submitted proposals, and two special sessions dedicated to ongoing research projects. A round-table discussion with journal editors will provide an opportunity to exchange views on current research trends, publication strategies, and emerging challenges in the field. The program will also offer three training courses, providing participants, particularly PhD students and young researchers, with valuable opportunities to strengthen their methodological and practical skills.

The detailed scientific program in PDF format will be available here in due course.

Pleanry lecture of the CE² 2026 Conference

Peter Nijkamp

EHERO-Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands; University College Wroclaw (WSKZ), Poland; SPPM Tsinghua University, Beijing, China.

Short Biography: Peter Nijkamp, emeritus professor at VU University, Amsterdam, is a global authority in regional and urban economics and economic geography. His research spans spatial mobility, urban modeling, sustainability, and tourism. He has authored numerous influential works and served on advisory boards. He is affiliated with EHERO at Erasmus University and serves as an Advisory member of EHERO. He is also an affiliate professor at UCW (WSKZ), collaborating on interdisciplinary research initiatives focused on urban change, knowledge exchange, and the societal impact of academic research. A founding member of NECTAR, he’s past president of the European Regional Science Association, RSAI, and former president of the Netherlands Research Council (NWO). Awarded the Spinoza Prize in 1996, Nijkamp serves as vice-president of The Regional Science Academy.

Title of the talk: Resilience and Sustainable Tourism

Keynote lectures of the CE² 2026 Conference

Anil K. Bera

University of Illinois, USA

Short Biography: Bio

Title of the talk: TBA

Abstract: TBA.

Sophie Dabo

University of Lille, France

Short Biography: Sophie Dabo-Niang is professor of Applied Mathematics (Statistics) at University of Lille and member of INRIA-MODAL team. She completed a 3-years PhD in Statistics from the University Paris 6 in 2002. She was chair of the axis MeQAME (Quantitauve methods in Management and Economics) of LEM and vice-chair of EMS-CDC (European Mathematical Society-Committee of Developing Counties; http://euro-math-soc.eu/committee/developing-countries). Dr. Sophie Dabo-Niang research program is focused on the study of non(semi)-parametric inference of functional and spatio-temporal data. From an applied perspective, she is interested in economics, medical, environmental and hydrological studies. She published more than forty statistical papers.

Title of the talk: Functional data Analysis and machine learning methods in environmental health research

Abstract: This presentation covers machine-learning applications for complex environmental health data. We examine longitudinal air-pollution data using functional data analysis. Rather than compressing exposure into annual averages or a few summaries, measurements are modelled as continuous trajectories over time, preserving seasonality, short-term peaks, long-term trends, and variation in exposure intensity and duration. Methods such as functional principal component analysis, clustering can identify dominant patterns, group areas, or individuals by exposure profiles and detect sensitive exposure windows. Predictive models can forecast future trajectories and flag locations or periods of elevated environmental risk.

Karima Kourtit

Open University, The Netherlands; EHERO Erasmus University Rotterdam, The Netherlands; University College Wroclaw (WSKZ), Poland.

Short Biography: Karima Kourtit leads the 'Smart Cities & Data Analytics' program at the Open University, Netherlands. She holds PhDs in urban economics and human geography (with distinction). Kourtit is also an Advisory member of EHERO at Erasmus University, contributing to research and policy discussions on quality-of-life and wellbeing. She is an affiliate professor at UCW (WSKZ), collaborating on interdisciplinary research initiatives focused on urban change, knowledge exchange, and the societal impact of academic research. Kourtit has edited books, guest-edited journals, and published in urban studies and spatial sciences. Her work focuses on drivers and governance of the 'New Urban World' and ‘City Love’ with emphasis on data analytics. She collaborated with World Bank, OECD, Urban Europe, ESPON, and is The Regional Science Academy Executive Director and WAAS associate fellow.

Title of the talk: Climate Change and the Urban Energy Transition

Invited lectures of the CE² 2026 Conference (in progress)

Mhamed Ali El Aroui

International University of Rabat, Morocco

Short Biography: Dr. El-Aroui has a PhD in Statistics from University Grenoble-Alpes (France) and an Engineering degree in Computer Science and Applied Mathematics from ENSIMAG Grenoble (France). He works mainly on applied and computational statistics with a special focus on risk modelling. Dr. El-Aroui has taught several courses bordering statistics, quantitative methods and management science: Quantitative and computational finance, Marketing Data-Analysis, Econometrics, Operations Research, etc. His research work was published in several peer-reviewed international journals like: Research Policy, Journal of Evolutionary Economics, Computational Economics, Computational Statistics & Data Analysis, Journal of Applied Statistics, etc.

Title of the talk: “title”

Abstract: Here the abstract

Hamid Allaoui

Artois University, France

Short Biography: Hamid Allaoui is a Professor at Université d’Artois, France, and Director of the Laboratoire de Génie Informatique et d’Automatique de l’Artois (LGI2A). His research focuses on decision support and optimization for sustainable logistics and supply chains, including supply chain design and planning, collaboration, scheduling, uncertainty, and intelligent decision-making. His work combines operations research and artificial intelligence methods to address strategic, tactical, and operational challenges in logistics and industrial systems. He has published in international journals in production, operations research, industrial engineering, transportation and supply chain management, and has contributed to collaborative research projects on sustainable logistics, digitalization, and supply chain decision-support systems.

Title of the talk: Current Challenges in Sustainable Supply Chains:
Resilience, Collaboration, Robotization and Artificial Intelligence

Abstract: Supply chains are currently undergoing profound transformations, driven simultaneously by sustainability and circular economy requirements, the need for stronger collaboration among stakeholders, and the growing integration of artificial intelligence and advanced technological solutions.

This lecture will first demystify the fundamental concepts of supply chains and supply chain planning, while providing a structured overview of the main optimization problems arising at the strategic, tactical, and operational levels.

It will then provide a structured overview of the major challenges currently facing supply chains, with particular emphasis on:

• the integration of environmental and social dimensions into supply chain design, planning, and management;

• new models and performance indicators associated with the circular economy;

• collaboration mechanisms, information sharing, and inter-organizational planning;

• technological transformation, including Autonomous Mobile Robots (AMRs), drones, and warehouse automation;

• the role of artificial intelligence in decision-making and uncertainty management.

The objective is to stimulate discussion on emerging research directions, scientific challenges, and new opportunities for supply chains in the context of ecological, technological, and digital transitions.

Riad Balaghi

Initiative AAA (Adaptation of African Agriculture), Rabat, Morocco

Short Biography: Dr Riad Balaghi is Director of Projects at the AAA Initiative Foundation (Adaptation of African Agriculture). He is a senior expert in climate change, climate risk management and agricultural adaptation, with more than 30 years of experience at the interface between science, policy and finance across Africa and the Mediterranean.

He built his career at the National Institute for Agronomic Research of Morocco (INRA), where he headed the Department of Environment and Natural Resources, the Department of Agronomy and the Regional Centre of Meknès. He led the development of a national drought early warning and cereal yield forecasting system that is used for agricultural policy and insurance. As an international consultant, he has advised the World Bank, the African Development Bank, FAO, UNDP, UNEP, GIZ and AFD. His advisory work covers drought strategies, index-based agricultural insurance, national adaptation planning and climate finance. He coordinated the report The State of African Agricultural Adaptation, 2016-2026.

Title of the talk: Counting Adaptation: What a Decade of African Climate Reporting Reveals

Abstract: Since the Paris Agreement, African countries have produced a large body of adaptation reporting. How far can this reporting measure adaptation in agriculture, the sector most exposed to climate risk on the continent? This communication draws on the AAA Initiative's decennial report, The State of African Agricultural Adaptation, 2016-2026. The report analyses 53 Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), 28 National Adaptation Plans (NAPs) and 24 Biennial Transparency Reports (BTRs), together with World Bank Country Climate and Development Reports.

The NDCs declare about USD 566 billion of adaptation needs, of which at least USD 80 billion is for agriculture. Barely 1.5 per cent of total declared needs can currently be traced through to delivery in national reporting; for agriculture, the ratio is 2.6 per cent. Much of this gap reflects finance that cannot be traced, rather than evidence that funds never flowed. Only 11 countries hold all three Paris instruments. Even where they do, NDC needs, NAP costings and BTR finance figures are prepared by different bodies, on different cost bases and timelines, and rarely reconcile. Only 9 per cent of NDCs anchor agriculture in the continental CAADP framework.

The communication argues that Africa's main adaptation deficit is one of measurement and accountability, and not only of finance. It concludes with a research agenda for the quantitative community on harmonised adaptation metrics, reconciliation of needs and flows, and statistical methods that can turn fragmented national reporting into evidence usable for policy and investment.

Taoufik Bouezmarni

Université de Sherbrooke, Canada

Short Biography: Taoufik Bouezmarni is Full Professor in the Département de mathématiques at the Université de Sherbrooke, Québec, Canada. He holds a Ph.D. in Statistics from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Belgium, 2004), following an M.Sc. from the same institution and a B.Sc. from Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. Before joining Sherbrooke, he held postdoctoral and lecturer positions at HEC Montréal, Université de Montréal, and McGill University. His research spans survival analysis, kernel smoothing for semi- and nonparametric methods, econometrics, dependence modelling, and independence testing, with particular emphasis on copula-based inference. He has authored over 45 peer-reviewed articles in leading journals such as the Journal of the American Statistical Association, the Journal of Econometrics, the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, and Econometric Reviews. He has held multiple NSERC Discovery Grants and other national funding awards, and has supervised numerous graduate students and postdoctoral fellows.

Title of the talk: Testing Dominance between Health Concentration Curves under an Unknown Geometric Configuration

Abstract: A health concentration curve may lie below or above the line of perfect equality, so a dominance test must first settle which side each curve occupies. We compare populations through their equality gaps Dj=∣Cj−id∣. On the same side of the diagonal this coincides with the mirror transformation of earlier work; on opposite sides the mirror comparison is inconsistent, and the gap comparison is not. We derive the limit laws under independent and matched-pairs sampling, prove three resampling schemes consistent, and show that the exchangeable bootstrap with Exp(1)weights is badly calibrated in finite samples while multinomial weights are not. The integral statistic is more powerful against violations spread over [0,1], the supremum against violations confined to a subinterval; a combined statistic tracks the better of the two, and a contact-set refinement recovers power at interior nulls. An application to the U.S. Health and Retirement Study illustrates the tests.

Tarik Chfadi

Mohammed VI Polytechnic University (UM6P), Ben Guerir, Morocco

Short Biography: Tarik Chfadi is an applied economist at the International Water Research Institute, Mohammed VI Polytechnic University. Previously, he held an assistant professor position in the Agribusiness Program at the United Arab Emirates University (UAEU) and was an STC consultant at the World Bank in Washington DC. Dr. Chfadi received his MSc and PhD from the Department of Agricultural and Resource Economics at the University of Maryland, as well as a Mineral Engineering Degree from the Mohammedia School of Engineering. Dr. Chfadi is a Fulbright/MACECE exchange student and a BADC (Belgium) fellow.

Title of the talk: To be confirmed

Abstract: To be confirmed

Mimoun Chourak

Mohammed I University (UMP), Oujda, Morocco

Short Biography: Prof. Chourak holds a Ph.D. in Geology (Seismology) from the University of Granada, Spain (2001). After working as a postdoctoral researcher at the University of Almería, Spain (2001–2005), he joined academia in Morocco in 2006. He is currently a Professor at Mohammed First University, where he has served as Head of the Department of Mechanical Engineering and Applied Mathematics at the National School of Applied Sciences (ENSA), Oujda.

His research focuses on climate change and disaster risk, seismic hazard and risk assessment, seismic microzonation, geophysical site characterization, and Earth structure modelling. He has participated in more than 30 international research projects and authored or co-authored over 120 scientific publications, with nearly 1,000 citations and an h-index of 16. He has supervised and co-supervised several Ph.D. theses and contributed to numerous urban and geotechnical mapping projects.

Prof. Chourak has held several national and international scientific responsibilities, including Vice President of the African Seismological Commission (2022–2025), member of the Executive Committee of the North African Geophysics and Tsunami Group, and expert for several Moroccan national institutions. He is also an evaluator for the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty Organization (CTBTO) and National Coordinator of an international project on multi-hazard modelling and mapping using Machine Learning and IoT sensors (2024–2026).

Title of the talk: Nature-Based Solutions for Environmental Resilience in Morocco

Abstract: Worldwide, the combined effects of climate change, rapid urbanization and increasing pressure on natural resources are creating new environmental challenges for cities. This trend is also evident in Morocco where flooding, soil erosion, water scarcity, loss of vegetation and ecosystem degradation are becoming more frequent or more severe in many regions.

Conventional engineering solutions remain essential, but often struggle to address environmental pressures that are increasingly complex and interact across hydrological, ecological and urban systems. This has increased interest in Nature-Based Solutions (NBS) as a complementary and more adaptive approach to territorial planning.

NBS rely on natural processes and ecosystem functions to respond to environmental risks while also providing wider ecological and social benefits. Depending on the local context, they may include vegetated areas, infiltration systems, restored wetlands, sustainable drainage systems, soil restoration measures or other forms of green and blue infrastructure. The strength of NBS lies not only in reducing a specific environmental risk, but also in providing several functions at the same time.

Many studies on Nature-Based Solutions have been conducted across Morocco, and constitute a valuable basis for the assessment of their environmental effectiveness under different territorial conditions, particularly in Casablanca, Zaio and Berkane. These areas present different climatic, hydrological and urban characteristics, providing useful examples for understanding how NBS can be adapted to different local contexts. These studies are pioneering studies for NbS impact assessment in Morocco and Africa, and reveal a recurrent pattern of environmental improvement across the different sites, from enhanced water infiltration and runoff regulation to better soil protection, vegetation development, ecological connectivity, and local environmental quality.

The Moroccan cases also illustrate an important shift in the way NBS can be understood. Rather than considering them simply as landscaping measures or ecological additions to conventional infrastructure, they can be designed as functional components of urban and territorial systems. A vegetated or restored area, for example, can simultaneously retain water, slow runoff, protect soils, support biodiversity and improve local environmental quality.

Theses finding therefore suggest that NBS can play a significant role in Morocco’s climate adaptation strategies. Their wider integration into planning and infrastructure projects could support a more balanced approach combining conventional engineering with natural processes, while improving long-term resilience and reducing the environmental footprint of territorial development.

Ahmed El Ghini

Mohammed V University in Rabat (UM5R), Morocco

Short Biography: Ahmed El Ghini is Full Professor at Mohammed V University in Rabat, Morocco. He was previously a postdoctoral researcher at the French National Centre for Scientific Research (CNRS), where he was involved in several national and international research projects, and an Assistant Professor of Teaching and Research at the University of Lille, France.

He holds a PhD and a Master’s degree in Applied Mathematics for Economics from Charles de Gaulle University, France. He has also provided consultancy services to the United Nations, contributing his expertise in quantitative methods, econometrics, and applied economic analysis to international research and development projects.

His research interests focus on time series modeling, econometrics, statistics, and their applications to economics, the environment, energy, and finance. His research has been published in peer-reviewed international journals and presented at numerous international conferences.

Ahmed El Ghini has received several distinctions, including the “Prix du chercheur de l’année 2015” in Humanities and Social Sciences from Mohammed V University in Rabat and the “Laureate of the Short-Term Research Fellowships Program in Humanities & Social Sciences,” awarded by the European Center for the Humanities and Social Sciences, France. He was also appointed by Bank Al-Maghrib to serve on the scientific committee for the Best PhD Thesis Award in Economics and Finance.

He has taught a wide range of undergraduate and graduate courses in econometrics, finance, and statistics. He has also mentored students at both levels, supervised several PhD students, and served on numerous PhD thesis committees in Morocco and abroad.

Ahmed El Ghini is the Founding Chair of two periodic international symposia, the “Days of Econometrics for Finance” and “Econometrics for the Environment.” He is also the principal investigator of several international research partnership projects.

Title of the talk: The Growth–Environment–Health Nexus in the MENA Region: Dynamic Interactions and Policy Implications

Rafiq Hamdi

Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium

Short Biography: Civil engineer in meteorology in June 2000 at Météo-France (Toulouse, France). Master Degree (DEA) at Catholic University of Louvain (Belgium) in June 2002, followed by a PhD in 2005 at the Institut d'Astronomie et de géophysique G. Lemaître in the field of urban meteorology. Rafiq Hamdi is working at the research department of the Royal Meteorological Institute of Belgium since December 2005. He is a member of the international consortium ALADIN that develops the atmospheric model ALARO and its land surface scheme called SURFEX, used both for numerical weather prediction and urban climate modeling. Since October 2014, he is guest lecturer at Ghent university. Since January 2023, he is guest professor at Xinjiang Institute of Ecology and Geography (Chinese Academy of Science). His main interests are: regional climate modelling, surface modelling, urban meteorology, land use land cover change and the urban climate under global warming and interaction surface/atmosphere. He is lead author for the IPCC AR6 report published in august 2021. In March 2025 he is selected as lead author for the AR7 IPCC special report on Climate change and Cities to be published in 2027.

Title of the talk: What the Latest Science on Climate Change means for Cities and Urban Areas

Abstract: The science makes it strikingly clear that cities and urban areas are both sources of climate forcers and important sites for innovation and implementation of adaptation, mitigation, and sustainable development. With emissions implied by current policies, global warming would exceed 2°C by around 2050. Even with strong reductions of greenhouse gas emissions, the increase of cumulative CO2 emissions will result in global warming exceeding 1.5°C in the next 20 years. Even at current global warming levels, urban areas are experiencing significant impacts from climate change. Some major cities have experienced mean local warming of beyond 1.5°C. Urban adaptation policies and plans must prepare for average global temperature rise exceeding 1.5°C. Heavy rainfall events are more intense and more frequent in a warming world, and runoff is amplified by urbanisation. Heavy rain events can flood buildings, roadways, subway tunnels and farmlands. Heavy precipitation may overwhelm city transportation and storm water drainage systems, which are typically designed using specific event intensity, duration and frequency that can be exceeded by many climate-induced extreme events. Urban adaptation options reduce risk but unevenly and inadequately. There are limits to adaptation in and around urban areas, particularly as warming increases. Any further delay in concerted global action on urban adaptation will miss the rapidly closing window to secure a livable future for all.

Nazim Hussain

Faculty of Economics and Business

University of Groningen, The Netherlands

Short Biography: Nazim Hussain is an Associate Professor of Sustainability Accounting at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. His research focuses on corporate sustainability, corporate governance, the circular economy, and greenwashing. He has published extensively in top-tier academic journals, including the British Accounting Review, Journal of Business Ethics, British Journal of Management, and Journal of Product Innovation Management, among many others.

Title of the talk: Corporate Environmental Sustainability

Abstract: This study investigates whether and how greenwashing—the gap between a firm’s “green talk” and “green walk”—affects bond pricing. Using 3,810 public bonds issued by US firms, we find a positive relationship between greenwashing and the cost of bonds. We identify the causal relationship by using the Federal Trade Commission’s 2012 regulatory intervention to curb misleading environmental claims as an exogenous shock to greenwashing. We also find a more pronounced relationship between greenwashing and the cost of bonds for firms whose credit rating is adjacent to the investment–speculative borderline, firms operating in environmentally sensitive industries, and firms with opaque information environments. Moreover, our two-step channel analyses show that greenwashing is associated with higher environmental litigation costs and a higher chance of rating disagreements among credit rating agencies, thus identifying risk and information channels through which greenwashing increases the cost of bonds. Our results shed new light on the economic consequences of greenwashing through the lens of the bond market.

Abdellatif Khattabi

ENFI, Salé, Morocco

Short Biography: : Agronomic Engineer from Institut Agronomique et Vétérinaire Hassan II, Rabat (1981), and Ecole Supérieure du Bois, Paris France (1980). Master of Sciences (1988) in economics and PhD in Forestry (1992) from the University of Idaho, USA. Master of Sciences in ICT, University of Louis Pasteur, Strasbourg, France (virtual campus). Full Professor at Ecole Nationale Forestière d’Ingénieurs since 1994, and visiting professor to many universities. Research Fellow in the Royal Institute of Strategic Studies (IRES), Morocco, and in the Institute for Labor Studies (IZA), Germany. His recent research interests deal with integrated natural resources management, environmental assessment, climate change adaptation, and rural development. Author of many publications (book chapters, scientific papers, expertise reports, outreaching documents, etc.), recipient of numerous research grants and consultant for international organizations (UNESCO, ISESCO, UNDP, UNEP, World Bank, FAO, GIZ, ..) and national public and private institutions. Fulbright Alumni, president of the Regional Science Association of Morocco. Lead author for the IPCC fifth report, chapter 5 (coastal zones and low lying areas).

Title of the talk: Climate stress, anthropogenic pressures and adaptation priorities in Moroccan forests: An integrated stakeholder perception analysis

Abstract: Moroccan forests are increasingly exposed to interacting climatic, anthropogenic, and institutional pressures, yet relatively few studies have examined how informed stakeholders perceive these dimensions together. We analyzed a cross-sectional survey of 277 stakeholders with substantial forest- and environment-related experience to assess perceived forest condition and trajectory, climatic and human pressures, ecological and socioeconomic impacts, governance constraints, and adaptation priorities. The study combined descriptive, inferential, multivariate, and mixed-method analyses, including an exploratory multiple factor analysis and a structured analysis of responses to an open-ended question. Forest decline was widely perceived, while recurrent drought was identified as a major natural pressure. Climate change ranked among the three leading degradation drivers, alongside overgrazing and illegal forest exploitation. Governance assessments were comparatively critical and local communities involved or strongly involved. Multivariate results revealed a perception structure linking climatic stress, anthropogenic pressures, and forest condition. Open-ended responses further showed frequent associations between climate change and drought, anthropogenic pressures, water and soil management, restoration, and forest-health concerns.Respondents prioritized ecological restoration, stronger regulation and enforcement, community participation, research and monitoring, and the use of locally adapted or climate-resilient species. Overall, informed stakeholders tended to perceive climate change as a pervasive background stressor interacting with land-use pressures, ecological degradation, and governance constraints. These perceptions support an integrated approach to forest adaptation that combines ecological, institutional, technological, and participatory responses rather than relying on purely climatic or silvicultural measures.

Khaled Mokni

International University of Rabat, Morocco

Short Biography: Khaled Mokni is an Associate Professor of Finance and Quantitative Methods at Rabat Business School, International University of Rabat (UIR), Morocco. He holds a PhD in Management Sciences with a specialization in Applied Statistics and an HDR in Management Science from the University of Sousse, Tunisia. His research focuses on applied econometrics, quantitative finance, sustainable and green finance, risk modeling, and financial market dynamics. He has published 58 peer-reviewed articles in international journals, with particular contributions to the study of climate and environmental risks, green finance, energy markets, financial uncertainty, and nonlinear and quantile-based econometric modeling. His research has appeared in journals such as Energy Economics, Energy, Journal of Environmental Management, Financial Innovation, Emerging Markets Review, Finance Research Letters, and Research in International Business and Finance. Dr. Mokni serves as Associate Editor of “Journal of Innovation & Knowledge”, “Future Business Journal” and “Modern Finance” and is an active reviewer for several international journals in economics and finance. He has been recognized among the World’s Top 2% Scientists by Elsevier/Stanford University for three consecutive years (2023, 2024, and 2025) and currently has an H-index of 30.

Title of the talk: Pricing Compound Climate-Geopolitical Risk: Evidence from a Novel News-Based Measure and Markov-Switching Quantile Local Projections

Abstract: Climate disasters, geopolitical conflicts, energy disruptions, and competition over critical minerals increasingly interact to generate compound risks with potentially important implications for asset pricing. This paper introduces the Systematic Geopolitical Climate Risk (SGCR) index, a novel daily news-based measure of compound climate-geopolitical risk constructed from 562 pre-coded GDELT themes spanning six interconnected risk dimensions over 2015–2026. To identify how this risk is priced, develop a Markov-Switching Quantile Local Projection (MS-QLP) estimator that jointly captures regime dependence and distributional heterogeneity, with inference that accounts for overlapping cumulative returns and the estimated regime structure. Applying the framework to clean-energy equities, green bonds, and ESG corporate bonds reveal that conventional mean-based analyses substantially underestimate climate-geopolitical risk pricing. Although average responses are often statistically insignificant, large and persistent effects emerge across climate-geopolitical regimes and return quantiles. Clean-energy equities experience pronounced losses during high-risk regimes, whereas green and ESG bonds exhibit substantially weaker responses, consistent with flight-to-quality behavior. These findings demonstrate that the risk premium associated with compound climate-geopolitical shocks is jointly state- and tail-dependent rather than observable through average returns. The paper contributes to asset pricing, climate finance, and financial econometrics by providing a new measure of compound risk and a unified framework for identifying its nonlinear pricing across sustainable financial markets.

Rachida Ouysse

School of Economics | UNSW Australia

Short Biography: Dr Rachida Ouysse is a Senior Lecturer in Economics at the UNSW Business School, UNSW Sydney. She holds a PhD in Economics/Econometrics from Boston College and an MA in Econometrics from the Université de Montréal. She has published in leading A and A* econometrics, statistics, forecasting, and financial econometrics journals, including the Journal of Financial Econometrics, the International Journal of Forecasting, and the Journal of Multivariate Analysis. Her research lies at the intersection of econometric theory, financial econometrics, and big‑data modelling, with work on high‑dimensional factor models, Bayesian and bootstrap methods, and dense and sparse predictive models for economic and financial time series.

A central theme of her recent work is the measurement of environmental and sustainability risk in financial markets. She develops matrix‑factor and high‑dimensional methods for structured ESG disclosure data to quantify firms’ alignment with sector‑specific materiality standards and to detect potential greenwashing in corporate reporting, with the aim of supporting more transparent and reliable environmental and climate‑related disclosures.

Dr Ouysse is co‑leading an “AI‑Powered ESG Alignment & Greenwashing Risk Analytics Platform” funded by an AEA IGNITE grant, in collaboration with industry partners, to deliver scalable tools that can be used by financial institutions, investors, and regulators. Through her role in the UNSW Fintech AI Innovation Consortium and its regulatory roundtables, she works at the interface of econometrics, AI, and policy, contributing evidence‑based insights to debates on sustainable finance, AI governance, and the design of climate‑aligned financial regulation.

Title of the talk: Disclosure Architecture and Materiality Alignment: Estimation and Inference in High-Dimensional ESG Panels

Abstract: Existing work on ESG disclosure largely measures disclosure intensity or aggregate scores, leaving the internal structure of disclosure across topics largely unexamined. That leaves open whether firms disclose the topics that are materially relevant for their industry or simply disclose more. The distinction matters for investors, lenders, regulators, and standard setters because materiality-based reporting is intended to support decision-useful information. This paper studies whether the cross-metric architecture of structured ESG disclosure aligns with sector-specific materiality benchmarks. We model firm-level disclosure matrices in a large-firm, large-metric, fixed-time setting and construct a rotation-invariant Materiality Architecture Score from the estimated metric-factor projection space. We establish consistency of the estimated metric-factor projection space, asymptotic normality of the induced architecture-level measures, and valid firm-cluster pairs-bootstrap inference under the unbalanced-panel design.

The empirical application uses Eurofidai structured ESG disclosures, with data obtained via EUROFIDAI, matched to SASB materiality maps for four sectors: Commercial Banks, Semiconductors, Software & IT Services, and Biotechnology & Pharmaceuticals. The data allow disclosure to be studied as a structured cross-metric object rather than collapsed into a scalar intensity measure, and the sectoral SASB mapping provides an external benchmark for testing whether disclosure architecture is materially aligned. The results show systematic cross-sector differences in alignment and support an architecture-level greenwashing measure that distinguishes disclosure volume from materiality alignment.

Dimitrios Paparas

Harper Adams University, UK

Short Biography: : short bio

Title of the talk: Climate Change, Natural Disasters, and Growth Dynamics in Latin America: A Panel Data Analysis.

Abstract: abstract

Behnaz Saboori

Sultan Qaboos University, Oman

Short Biography: : Dr. Behnaz Saboori is an Associate Professor of Natural Resource and Environmental Economics at Sultan Qaboos University, Oman, with more than 10 years of experience in higher education, research, and academic activities at national and international levels. Her research interests include environmental and energy economics, climate change, sustainable development, economic diversification, circular economy, resource efficiency, and food waste management. She has been involved in several national and international research projects and collaborations addressing environmental sustainability, food security, and sustainable resource management. Dr. Saboori has published extensively in international peer-reviewed journals and serves on the editorial boards of academic journals and as a reviewer for a number of international journals. Her work combines economic, environmental, and behavioral perspectives to support evidence-based policies for sustainable and resilient economies.

Title of the talk: Beyond Awareness: Understanding the Drivers of Household Food Waste

Abstract: Food waste has emerged as a major challenge at the intersection of food security, environmental sustainability, and economic efficiency. While considerable attention has been given to raising consumer awareness and promoting positive attitudes toward food waste reduction, a persistent question remains: why do good intentions so often fail to translate into actual changes in household behavior?

This study draws on a systematic review of 233 studies published between 2000 and 2025 to examine the determinants of household food waste across the intention-to-action continuum. The evidence demonstrates that food waste is not simply the outcome of individual attitudes or a lack of environmental awareness. Rather, it is produced through the interaction of immediate food-related practices, intermediate psychological and behavioral factors, and broader socioeconomic, cultural, institutional, and infrastructural conditions.

The review identifies dietary habits, purchasing patterns, meal planning, food storage, preparation skills, and leftover management as particularly important drivers of household food waste. At the same time, factors such as income, household structure, cultural norms, hospitality practices, food safety concerns, packaging, date labeling, and policy environments shape the conditions under which these behaviors occur. Importantly, the findings reveal that the widely used Theory of Planned Behavior provides only a partial explanation of food waste behavior. Households may possess strong intentions to reduce waste, yet these intentions can be disrupted by habits, social expectations, retail practices, time constraints, and inadequate infrastructure.

The study argues that closing the intention–behavior gap requires a shift from awareness-centered interventions toward integrated and context-sensitive approaches. Effective strategies should combine behavioral interventions with practical skills, supportive food environments, appropriate packaging and labeling, improved infrastructure, and policies that make sustainable choices easier in everyday life. This perspective also highlights the importance of understanding food waste within its cultural and socioeconomic context rather than treating households as homogeneous consumers.

The lecture concludes by discussing how behavioral insights can be translated into more effective food-waste policies and interventions, with particular relevance to achieving SDG 12.3, strengthening food-system sustainability, and reducing the environmental and economic costs of wasted food.

Erwann Sbai

International University of Rabat, Morocco

Short Biography: Erwann Sbaï is Associate Professor of Economics at the International University of Rabat (UIR) and an Affiliated Professor at the Toulouse School of Economics (TSE). He holds a PhD in Economics from Toulouse School of Economics and has previously served as a Senior Lecturer and Deputy Head of the Department of Economics at the University of Auckland.

His research focuses on econometrics, structural econometrics, empirical games, auctions, energy economics, and applied economics. His recent work also addresses energy markets, electricity prices, climate-related issues, and applied economic and econometric methods. His research has been published in international journals, including the Journal of Econometrics, Econometric Theory, Energy, and Energy Policy.

Title of the talk: “title”

Abstract: abstract

Yassine Sbai Sassi

New York University, USA

Short Biography: Yassine Sbai Sassi is an Assistant Professor of Economics at New York University. He received his Ph.D. in Economics from the University of California, Berkeley. His research focuses on econometric theory, specializing in the statistical analysis of network models, dyadic interactions, and panel data.

Title of the talk: Homophily and transitivity in dynamic network formation

Abstract: In social and economic networks linked agents often share connections in common. There are two competing explanations for this phenomenon. First, agents may have a structural taste for transitive links – the returns to linking may be higher if two agents share a common connection. Second, agents may assortatively match on unobserved attributes, a process called homophily. We study parameter identifiability in a simple model of dynamic network formation with both effects. Agents form, maintain, and dissolve links over time to maximize utility. The return to linking may be higher if agents share connections in common. A pair-specific utility component allows for arbitrary homophily on time-invariant agent attributes. We derive conditions under which it is possible to detect the presence of a taste for transitivity in the presence of assortative matching on unobservables. We leave the joint distribution of the initial network and the pair-specific utility component, both high dimensional nuisance parameters, unrestricted. Our identification result is constructive, suggesting an analog estimator, whose finite and (single) large network properties we characterize. We show, via examples, the delicacy of information accumulation in the single (large) network setting.

Abderrahim Taamouti

University of Liverpool, UK

Short Biography: Abderrahim Taamouti has a PhD in Economics from University of Montreal in Canada. Before joining Liverpool University Management School, Abderrahim held the position of Associate Professor of Economics at Universidad Carlos III de Madrid in Spain and Professor of Economics and Finance at Durham University Business School in the UK. His research expertise lies in Econometrics and Finance, with a particular focus on areas such as Granger causality analysis, high-dimensional data analysis, non-parametric estimation and testing, machine learning, asset pricing, systemic risk, and characteristic function methods in financial time series. His work also delves into specialized topics like copula estimation, exact sign-based inference, risk management and portfolio optimization, sovereign credit ratings, and robust estimation techniques for measurement errors and stock return predictability.

He is an Associate Editor for the Journal of the Royal Statistical Society: Series A, a Senior Co-Editor for Advances in Econometrics, and a member of the Editorial Board for the Journal of Risk and Financial Management. Abderrahim is a Fellow of the Econometric Society and an elected member of its Regional Standing Committee. Additionally, he has held notable leadership roles, including serving as Program Chair for one of the regional conferences of the Econometric Society and as Director of Quantitative Research in Financial Economics at Durham University (2014–2021). Currently, he serves as the Director of LAMBDA (Liverpool Advanced Methods for Big Data Analytics) Research Centre at the University of Liverpool.

His research has been widely published in prestigious journals in economics, finance and statistics.

Title of the talk: The Horizon Structure of Contagion: High-Dimensional Measurement and Inference

Abstract: Environmental systems are characterized by complex interactions in which shocks originating in one component can propagate through others, with the strength and direction of these transmission mechanisms potentially changing with the forecasting horizon. Motivated by the need to measure such propagation in high-dimensional environmental systems, this paper proposes a horizon-specific contagion measure that combines formal detection of a directed predictive link with a continuous measure of its strength. Strength is the logarithmic ratio of the forecast-error variances obtained without and with the predictive block associated with the source, conditional on the rest of the system, and the reported edge weight retains it only when the corresponding Granger-noncausality hypothesis is rejected. We develop estimation and inference for this measure in high-dimensional restricted predictive systems, in which a known grouping map compresses the state entering each equation; heterogeneous autoregressive and grouped index specifications are the leading cases. Because neither the restriction nor the passage to longer horizons preserves sparsity of the underlying dynamics, regularity conditions are imposed directly on the grouped state.

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