Advanced Sustainable Finance

Registration

The course is split up into 4 online interactive training sessions each 3.5 hours. For detailed content refer Course Outline.

Date : 22nd – 25th February, 2021
Time : 13:00-16:30 CET

Price per participant: 1,400 EUR *

*Alumni discount is 10%
*Group discount is 10%

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Target Group

This course is designed for finance experts and professionals, including retail bankers, financial advisors, asset managers, risk managers etc. and all other financial industry professionals interested in deep dive into the topic of sustainable finance. This course might also be relevant for professionals working in sustainability related fields, such as NGOs, international cooperation of development banks. This course is recommended for professionals who have first experience with sustainable finance or have completed Frankfurt School’s Certified Expert in Sustainable Finance online course.

Learning Target

After finishing the course, participants shall have gained a deep and long lasting knowledge of the key principles, best practices and latest developments in the field of sustainable finance, including the risk management perspective, the role of data and the latest developments on how sustainable finance products can be classified (e.g. according to the EU Taxonomy).

Methodology

Lecture, discussion, individual and group exercises, case studies, and reading materials on the FS e-learning platform

Course Outline

Kick-off and Unit 1 – Risk management in sustainable finance

The first session starts with an overview of the current status of sustainability related regulation – where are we heading now. Afterwards we will learn why a holistic sustainability approach for an organization is important, and we will deep-dive into certain risk management perspectives from an ESG point of view, with a focus on financial institutions and its different operational functions. We will also go through different frameworks that can be applied for practical ESG metrics implementation.

Unit 2 – Future of data about sustainability

In this session, we imagine a future in which the analysis of sustainability information is easy, accessible, and real-time. The unit explores some of the major pain spots in obtaining ESG data, and also examines the reasons why ESG ratings are weakly correlated. The session then explores how a data science approach could unlock more potential from the data about sustainability related impacts. The unit focuses on high level issues and simplified examples in order to reveal key principles. It incorporates class discussions and interactive group work to explore if an “Internet of Impact” is possible – and how it could function.

Unit 3 – Exploring climate-related scenarios

In this interactive session, we will introduce the theory and practice of climate-related scenarios. This class aims to take you on a journey with user-friendly scenario exploration tools to look at different climate-related scenarios under different assumptions. Students will do some hand-on exercises in guided group work. We will jointly discuss the implications of different scenarios on financial and business activities under increasing sustainable finance regulations and stricter climate policies.

Unit 4 – On classifying sustainable financial products

In this session, we will update you on the latest developments on taxonomies and their role in classifying green and sustainable financial products. Students will discuss and experience what it means to measure sustainability, which challenges are relate to it and how those challenges might be overcome in the future. The class also provides insights into the relationship of labelling and classifying sustainable financial products.

Trainers

Karl H. Richter, Executive Director, EngagedX

Karl is the Co-founder of EngagedX, which specialises in providing consultancy, thought leadership, advocacy and policy work. He works internationally across private, public and social sectors. He is an experienced entrepreneur, leader, executive, and part-time lecturer at the Frankfurt School of Finance and Management.

Previously he served a 12 month assignment as Head of Research and Knowledge for the UNDP SDG Impact Finance initiative (UNSIF), where he led research to improve the analytical framework for social impact investing; was a member of Groupe d'Experts de la Commission sur l'Entrepreneuriat Social (GECES) of the European Commission to advise on its Social Business Initiative. Currently he is part of the OECD expert group on social impact investing; Senior Fellow of the Finance Innovation Lab; and Adviser to several organisations.

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Karl has been invited by civil society organisations, academia, governments and the media across Europe, Asia and USA to speak on social impact investing. Has guest lectured at the Universities of Oxford and Cambridge; advised HM Treasury on EU social investment regulations; was invited to submit evidence for alternative finance to the UK's Parliamentary Commission on Banking Standards; been asked by the UK Cabinet Office to represent the UK on social investment at EU level; was invited by US Secretary of State to be a plenary panelist at the Global Impact Economy Forum in 2012.

In 2011, he co-authored ‘Making Good in Social Impact Investment: Opportunities in an Emerging Asset Class'.

Karl holds an MBA specialising in entrepreneurship and project management, writing his dissertation on data interoperability standards and collaboration principles in the building design industry. He started his career as an architect and project manager for multidisciplinary design teams, and development leader for public and private sector construction projects. He was the founding Chair of Friends of the Crystal Palace Subway, a community-led initiative to reopen a historic community asset to the public.

As expert for green and sustainable finance, Sebastian advises financial institutions on the operationalisation of sustainable finance and governments on sustainable financial related policy measures. Recent projects involve the analysis of several European countries’ financial market regulations for compliance with the Paris climate goals under the 3fP-Tracker.com framework, the first larger scale pilot of the EU Ecolabel for financial products and the development of a technical toolkit to advise commercial banks on implementing climate commitments. Sebastian has contributed to the development of the EU Taxonomy as an additional expert to the Technical Expert Group on Sustainable Finance. He is currently involved in outreach to the German industry on the EU Taxonomy and develops solutions to operationalise the EU Taxonomy at funds, banks and SMEs in the real economy.

Before joining the FS-UNEP Centre, Sebastian has gained experience in private equity as part of Allianz Global Investors’ transaction services team for a renewable energy projects.

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He has further successfully completed a talent programme on corporate finance in the German aviation industry and was awarded the MSc in Carbon Finance from the University of Edinburgh Business School with an academic excellence certificate and holds a BSc in International Business Administration from the Frankfurt School.

Sebastian Rink

Dina Lorentz

Dina´s educational background is in on law and economics. She has extensive experience in mergers & acquisitions, both from a legal as well as a financial perspective, with a special focus on financial institutions, including financial modelling. In 2013, she made a career and life change with moving to Lima, Peru where she started focusing her personal passion and work ambitions on sustainable finance in general and related financial instruments. In Lima, she was working for one of the largest European impact investing fund managers in the area of microfinance where she headed the operations department of the Latin American fund. In addition, she started her own consultancy work, supporting the Peruvian Government on the development of sustainable corporate governance practices in the industry sectors and by working with developing finance organizations on practical issues of incentivized sustainable lending.

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Coming back to Europe in 2016 where she started with the law firm Freshfields Bruckhaus Deringer, she has been focusing on innovative sustainable financial instruments and related strategies, including bankable and capital markets products.

Menglu Neupert-Zhuang is a sustainable finance expert and researcher at the Frankfurt School. Her research field lies in an interdisciplinary area that connects finance with energy economics. She uses modelling approach to study how policy uncertainty affects investor decisions. She uses economics experiment approach to study framing effect of ESG information on retail investors and ESG investors' information avoidance behaviour.

Besides research, Ms. Neupert-Zhuang has more than 6 years working experiences in the area of climate and sustainable finance. Amongst others, she was a key team member in the projects Developing Sustainable Energy Investment Metrics for the Financial Sector (SEI Metrics) funded by the European Commission and Results-based Climate Finance Initiative mapping, Outlining and Assessment supported by the World Bank. She has published many studies and book chapters on climate and sustainable finance topics.

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Ms. Zhuang holds a M.Sc. Finance degree from Frankfurt School of Finance & Management and a Graduate Diploma in advanced mathematics from University of London. Ms. Zhuang is currently writing a PhD dissertation at University of Marburg on climate policy choices using mixed research methods.

Menglu Neupert-Zhuang

Henriette Jahns

Henriette Jahns (née Schweizerhof) is a Senior Project Manager at FS-UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance. Henriette works on sustainable finance policy aspects in the center, focusing on the transformation of the European financial sector through financial sector regulation and private sector initiative. Beyond this, Henriette works on various aspects of financing energy transitions and has also published in this field. She has a strong track record in risk assessment and risk mitigation advice at the renewable energy & energy infrastructure project, company, and portfolio level. She further worked on the market and sectoral analyses with a focus on regulatory frameworks and the competitive and financing conditions for mature and emerging sustainable energy technologies and energy infrastructure.

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Before joining the FS UNEP-Centre, Henriette worked in the risk advisory team of Allianz Climate Solutions GmbH and for the German Federal Ministry for the Environment, Nature Conservation, and Nuclear safety, where she was in charge of international renewable energy cooperation in various bilateral and multilateral fora. She holds a Master’s degree in European Economics (College of Europe, Bruges, Belgium) and a Diploma degree in Mathematics (University of Düsseldorf, Germany).

The Frankfurt School - UNEP Collaborating Centre for Climate & Sustainable Energy Finance

The Centre is a strategic cooperation between Frankfurt School and the UN Environment Programme. Its vision is to advance transformation to resilient low-carbon and resource-efficient economies by attracting new types of investors, in particular catalysing the financing of clean energy by the private sector. The Centre is UNEP’s major knowledge hub for climate finance related aspects. Further information