Certificate in Sustainable Finance

Description

Sustainable finance or, more broadly speaking, the role of financial markets and investors in the transition towards a more sustainable economic framework is one of the most important topics in finance today. We have seen tremendous developments in this area during the last 5 to 10 years but even more is expected to come. Those developments affect all areas of finance including corporate finance, asset management and financial markets. They also have important consequences on reporting standards and regulatory as well as legal frameworks.

The goal of the Certificate in Sustainable Finance is to teach students state-of-the-art thinking and core concepts in this field. Most importantly, the certificate will provide a comprehensive foundation of sustainable finance that will cover all relevant aspects including important financial concepts, the regulatory and legal dimension, and current reporting standards. In particular, the intended Learning Outcomes of the certificate in sustainable finance are the following:

• Students will understand the main challenges in sustainable finance, both from a sustainability (e.g., important thresholds and milestones to achieve the transition to more sustainable economies) as well as a finance perspective (e.g., the role of finance in that transition and alternative, macro-level views --- market-based solution versus taxes/regulatory solutions, shareholder versus stakeholder view).
• Students will master important theories that explain how sustainability and finance interact (e.g., how do aspects of sustainability affect or not affect main financial theories such as the CAPM or mean-variance optimality).
• Students learn (a) about common techniques to incorporate sustainability in investment decisions, and (b) about specific financial instruments that focus on sustainable investing and allow investors to manage ESG-related risks.
• Students get an overview on current as well as planned regulations and legal frameworks that are relevant for sustainable finance, with a focus on the EU-wide perspective.

Format and Structure

The certificate is an 8-day program spread across two weeks (Monday to Thursday within each program week). Each day has a morning session, between 9:00 and 12:30, and an afternoon session (between 13:30 and 17:00).

In the certificate, different pedagogical approaches will be used including lectures and group exercises. An important part of the certificate will be case-based. The case teaching format is very interactive. Throughout, participants get to apply and develop their analytical and verbal skills in discussing topics in sustainable finance.  Some Excel-based modeling will be required.

Certificate participants should prepare all cases before class, using the case assignment questions that will be distributed. Careful preparation is required to maximize your learning experience in the course. This involves reading the cases carefully and completely; extracting the information necessary to answer the assignment questions; and reflecting on the issues and challenges highlighted in the case. We expect course participants to spend at least 3 hours on the preparation of each case (after having read it), depending on case complexity, length, and familiarity with the topics of the case.

We will also invite guest lecturers from industry to provide the industry perspective and to complement the academic material.