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Introduction to Sustainable Finance: UN CC:e-Learn course

Learn about the basics of Sustainable Finance in this interactive and practice-oriented course! It covers sustainable finance instruments, methodologies and frameworks for integrating sustainability into financial decisions, key global sustainable finance initiatives, and sustainable finance regulations.
Urban scene with meadow Credit: Scott Webb
Photo credit: Scott Web, Kindel Media
  • Level: Introductory
  • Time commitment: 10 hours
  • Learning product: online course (self-paced)
  • Sector: finance, green economy
  • Language: English
  • Certificate available: from UN CC:e-Learn website

This course is hosted on UN CC:e-Learn. Please find the Introduction to Sustainable Finance course, where you can enrol for full access.

Introduction

Delivering the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and the emissions reductions envisaged by the Paris Agreement will require huge capital investment by the public and by the private sector. According to the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI), the amount required is between US$5-7 trillion a year, including investments in infrastructure, clean energy, water and sanitation, and agriculture.

There are clear signs that the finance sector is increasingly prepared to respond to this challenge. By November 2021, there were over 4,000 signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment and over 200 banks had signed the Principles for Responsible Banking.

Accompanying this growth in interest and investment has been a growth in demand from stakeholders for education and training on sustainable finance, so that they can understand what sustainable finance is, what benefits it can achieve in comparison to traditional approaches to finance, and how it can be brought even further into the mainstream of the financial sector.

This interactive and practical course, ‘Introduction to Sustainable Finance’, provides you with the basic knowledge you need to understand sustainable finance – its scope, its contribution to supporting action on climate change and sustainable development, the main actors and how financial institutions make decisions on sustainability-related issues. The course also allows you to dig deeper into topics such as sustainable finance instruments (e.g., green, social and, sustainability-linked bonds and loans), methodologies and frameworks for integrating sustainability into financial decisions, key global sustainable finance initiatives (e.g., the Principles for Responsible Banking, the Principles for Responsible Investment and the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures) and sustainable finance regulations. These topics are supplemented by examples and case studies from around the world.

This article provides an overview of the course. The full course with all videos, quizzes plus learning material can be accessed here through afree registration on the UNCC:e-Learn website. For more information on the course structure, methodology, learning objectives and completion requirements, please download the course syllabus.

Institutional background and trainer

This course was originally developed in 2018 by Skandinaviska Enskilda Banken (SEB) and Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, as part of their Strategic Alliance (STA) on Green Bond Market Development in G20 Emerging Economies, and the Partnership for Action on Green Economy (PAGE), a One UN initiative bringing together five UN agencies.

In 2021, the course was comprehensively updated with funding support from the German Federal Ministry for Economic Cooperation and Development (BMZ). We would further like to acknowledge STA and PAGE funding partners who made the development of the initial course possible.

Who would find this useful?

The course is designed for a wide audience, including policymakers interested in understanding how the financial sector might support sustainable development, companies interested in understanding how investors analyse and take account of sustainability issues, finance professionals interested in understanding how their activities might support the goals of sustainable development, and civil society organisations interested in working with the finance sector.

Training material

Image: Lesson 16: In Focus: Sustainable Finance in Colombia. Module 4. Credit: UN CC:e-Learn

The e-learning course provides technical knowledge on the contribution that sustainable finance can make to sustainable development, and on how sustainable finance may be deployed in the real-world policy or business context. The course:

  • Explains the potential contribution of sustainable finance to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.
  • Explains the core concepts of sustainable finance and the relevance of sustainability considerations for the key actors in the financial system.
  • Describes the role that regulation and industry initiatives (self-regulation) play in shaping sustainable finance.
  • Describes different sustainable finance products, such as bonds and loans, that may be available to provide the capital needed to support the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

Course Structure

The e-learning course is divided into four modules:

  1. Sustainable Finance in Context
  2. Fundamentals of Sustainable Finance
  3. Sustainable Finance: Regulation and Self-regulation
  4. Sustainable Finance Products

Each module is composed of several lessons. Participants can navigate through the modules and lessons according to their individual interests and level of knowledge.

Learning outcomes

  • Explains the potential contribution of sustainable finance to achieving the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change;
  • Explains the core concepts of sustainable finance and the relevance of sustainability considerations for the key actors in the financial system;
  • Describes the role that regulation and industry initiatives (self-regulation) play in shaping sustainable finance;
  • Describes different sustainable finance products, such as bonds and loans, that may be available to provide the capital needed to support the delivery of the Sustainable Development Goals and the goals of the Paris Agreement on Climate Change.

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