Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems (CoFiRES)

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Contact Info
  • Gregory Characklis, PhD, Director, Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems
  • Philip C. Singer Distinguished Professor, Department of Environmental Sciences and Engineering
  • 139 Rosenau Hall
  • CB #7431
  • Chapel Hill, NC 27599-7431
  • (919) 843-5545
These are the locations and topics covered by funded projects being researched by the UNC Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems.

Message from the Director

Gregory Characklis, PhD
Director and W. R. Kenan Jr. Distinguished Professor
Welcome to the Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems. We focus on interdisciplinary research that leads to better understanding and management of environmentally-related financial losses. Please feel free to contact us as we are always looking for new problems and opportunities.
Read More about Dr. Characklis.
Dr. Greg Characklis

The UNC Center on Financial Risk in Environmental Systems (CoFiRES) is jointly housed in the Department of Environmental Science and Engineering at UNC’s Gillings School of Global Public Health and UNC’s Institute for the Environment. We focus on understanding the links between financial losses and drought, hurricanes and other extreme environmental events. By developing integrated models of natural, engineered, economic and financial systems, we provide better estimates of the likelihood and severity of environmentally-related financial risks. Our research includes:

  • Developing new financial instruments, such as index insurance, to help individuals, businesses and government agencies manage environmental financial risks.
  • Creating innovative risk management strategies to combat increasingly complex environmental challenges, using new and existing financial instruments in combination with infrastructure.
  • Providing those exposed to risk better planning paradigms for extreme environmental events, helping them improve their ability to manage the resulting financial risk.