Sara Rosner
5 Years at AB|19 Years of Experience
Sara Rosner is a Senior Vice President and AB’s Director of Responsible Investing Research. She leads the Responsibility team’s work with AB’s investment teams and clients on identifying, researching and engaging with material environmental and social issues that arise in the investment process. Rosner also leads AB’s collaboration with the Columbia Climate School, which focuses on enhancing investors’ ability to integrate climate change considerations into their decision-making and investment processes. She has developed and is implementing AB’s approach to managing material risks and opportunities stemming from the global transition to a lower carbon economy and has managed firmwide initiatives on climate scenario analysis, carbon offsets, and ESG education and training. Prior to joining the firm in 2018, Rosner performed research for the Columbia Center on Sustainable Investment, where she worked on projects related to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and renewable energy alternatives in the extractive industry. She spent most of her early career as a journalist covering energy and infrastructure finance in the Americas for Euromoney Institutional Investor. Rosner holds a BS (magna cum laude) in international studies from Pepperdine University and an MS in sustainability management from Columbia University. She is a global member of 100 Women in Finance and a member of Women Investing in a Sustainable Economy (WISE). Rosner was named one of Crain’s New York Business Notable Leaders in Sustainability 2023. Location: New York
Published Work
Water security represents a critical challenge: how to address too much, too little and too-polluted water.
Integrating the physical toll of climate change helps investors spot key risks—and opportunities
Companies emitting high levels of GHG face complex challenges as they prepare for a low-carbon world.
Building a low-carbon equity strategy requires a wide view of the forces shaping businesses and returns, including climate change.
Investors face an urgent challenge in understanding, analyzing and managing biodiversity risks.
Sovereign debt-for-nature swaps are a specialized ESG-labeled structure with a familiar feature: some issuers have strong credentials—others less so.
Biodiversity is gaining prominence as a potentially material issue for companies and investors around the world.
Investors are warming to opportunities stemming from climate change, and other takeaways from COP28.
Deforestation is a global sustainability challenge, with broad ramifications for businesses and equity investors.
The recent COP27 gathering will likely be remembered for shifting the global climate-change debate. We share our key takeaways from the conference.
Scenario analysis will be a key tool in assessing exposure to climate change—both insurers and investment managers can play a role in advancing it.
Carbon offsets are steadily gaining attention from investors as a tool to accelerate carbon reductions.
The war in Ukraine has exacerbated the challenges to global food security, putting major portions of critical agricultural commodities at risk. Where does the world go from here?
The intersection of climate science and investment discipline can uncover new climate-change insights that can ultimately drive better investment decisions.
Climate change is intensifying. Models and scenario analysis combined with human insight can help measure the cost to companies.
As investors and companies increasingly seek to address the risks of climate change, there is growing debate about the use of carbon offsets in achieving net-zero emissions. We think there's room for a measure of offsets to achieve carbon neutrality, provided best practices are followed.
Our recent conversations with climate experts, asset owners and other stakeholders on net zero surfaced issues central to developing solutions, including sharpening investors' skills, strengthening engagement, and striving for better and more accessible data.
COP26 in Glasgow, Scotland generated a lot of big-picture headlines but also meaningful underlying themes including the sustainability skills gap, blended financing initiatives and the need for broader engagement to facilitate net zero.
ESG is increasingly fundamental to investing, and multi-asset investors face an added ESG dimension: strategic asset allocation. Keeping ESG objectives front and center in the process may not be as second nature as it is with traditional risk/return objectives, but alignment-and a strong investment policy statement-can help.
Gauging the potential impacts of climate change on a company’s valuation or portfolio performance is extremely difficult. At AB, we’ve partnered with Columbia University’s Earth Institute to conduct an extensive review of existing climate change scenario-analysis providers and their various approaches.
COVID-19 has dealt a devastating blow to humanity and the global economy in a shockingly short period of time. The impact to life, health and economic output has been obvious and immediate. Investors and scientists couldn't help but notice the connections between COVID-19 and climate change.
Tackling the increasingly urgent issue of climate change will require enormous amounts of capital-invested smartly. In that effort, climate scientists and investors can learn a lot from each other, an idea behind the collaboration among Columbia University climate experts and AB investment professionals.