Hosted at ECCI
Presented by Edinburgh Futures Institute, the Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability and the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute.
A fundamental course for financial professionals focused on the consequences of climate change on finance – how to navigate data, measure risk, gain accurate insights for financial decision making, and capture opportunities related to transitioning to net zero. Delivered over 10 weeks with a mix of self-paced and live, facilitated discussions with participants from across the financial services sector.
About This Course
Assessments of financial risk associated with climate change are increasingly informing decision-making in global capital markets. The Financial Stability Board's Taskforce on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) has set out a high-level framework for disclosing both climate risks and opportunities in financial reports, and financial regulatory authorities are beginning to move towards the mandatory disclosure of such risks.
In parallel, central banks are increasingly integrating climate risks into their activities and supervisory authorities are calling for the integration of climate risk information into financial stability monitoring (stress testing) and micro-supervision (scenario analysis).
Finally, a growing number of investment managers and advisers are assessing exposure to climate change risks using Environment, Social, Governance (ESG) frameworks, and emerging climate service providers.
The desire of governments, regulators, standard-setters and business to understand how climate change can be a threat multiplier to key macro-financial risks requires to translate insights from climate science and climate modelling into micro and macroeconomic impacts, and eventually into financially risks.
Over the course of 10 weeks, you will:
- Explore the emerging theories and practice of sustainable finance and climate-related financial risks.
- Be introduced to climate change fundamentals and terminology.
- Understand how to translate the complex climate information compiled from observations and near- and long-term model predictions for financial decision-makers.
- Understand how to assess and quantify the direct risks arising from climate change on physical assets, businesses, portfolios and supply chains; but also potentially near-term disruptive impacts associated with mitigation policies, changing preferences, and ongoing technological change.
- Understand the impact of climate change on different financial asset classes (equity markets, fixed-income markets, real estate).
- You will build confidence in applying learnings for financial decision-making.
This programme seeks to act as a catalyst for change. We assume no prior knowledge, but we do assume a keen interest in learning the tools required to help you think about future solutions linked to your day-to-day work.
Why Edinburgh?
Edinburgh has a proud history of innovation in financial services and is an important hub of sustainable finance.
The University of Edinburgh is a world-leading academic centre, with a number of research centres across a number of different Schools focused on understanding how climate is changing; the impact of these changes on the environment, society and economies; how professions and practices are responding, and how climate adaptation and mitigation strategies are evolving.
The Edinburgh Futures Institute; the Centre for Business, Climate Change and Sustainability (Business School); the Edinburgh Climate Change Institute (Geosciences) and others are at the forefront of these conversations providing a space for academia and practice to come together to create powerful solutions to the challenges we face.