Quants have no place computing "outbound" climate risk

By following Louie on LinkedIn you get a really broad sense of all the happenings in the climate risk and sustainability space.  The other day he pointed me to a post that piqued my interest immensely.  The introductory sentence asks how big a role quants might play in the climate risk and sustainability agenda. 

Probably because I’m a barely reformed econometrics professor, I asked a slightly different question:  Does a non-quant have any role at all?

I’m joking of course.  When you do a PhD there’s a tendency to believe that your own work is absolutely central to every problem plaguing mankind.  

But seriously, I do think that the key to climate salvation lies in understanding – and then vigorously acting on – the available evidence, a deep understanding of which is only acquired when modeled using sound quantitative methods.  This allows you to test which of your prejudices are reflected in reality and which should be expunged from the discussion.  After all, having bankers debate untestable assertions about an uncertain future ad nauseum seems to me an exercise in abject futility.