Certificate in Sustainable Finance

Schedule

WEEK 1: June 7^th – June 10^th 2022

Session 1:   Implications of Sustainability for Financial Markets, Dr Peter Mathis (Week 1 Day 1: June 7^th : 9:00-12.30)

• Why should companies care about sustainability?
• The role of politics, regulators and the legal system.
• Central Banks and Sustainable Finance.
• The role of finance. Why is there even a need for “sustainable finance”? What makes finance special in this context?
• Shareholder versus stakeholder orientation. Why should managers internalize externalities to the environment in their decision making? If not, how could taxes and/or regulation help in this context.
• Define E, S and G and to discuss the main challenges for each of those dimensions. (Focus on climate-related aspects of sustainability).
• Green Bonds: Financing by Governments and Large Companies.
• Responsible lending by Banks.
• Microfinance and Sustainability.

Session 2: Financing Investments and Financial Instruments, Dr Peter Mathis (Week 1 Day 1: June 7^th : 13.30-15.00)

• Fundamentals of Corporate Finance and Financial Markets: A refresher
• Financial Instruments: Equity and Debt
• Financial instruments from a contract theoretic perspective: How do different financial instruments affect incentives of management?

Session 3: “Climate, Energy, and Finance: how late are we?”, Thomas Gibon (Week 1 Day 1: June 7^th :  15:00-17:00)

• Participants will receive a compact overview of the challenges we all face and why immediate action is needed.

Session 4:  Integrating Sustainability into Asset Management, Prof. Michael Halling (Week 1 Day 2 and 3: June 8^th and June 9^th : 9:00-12:30 / 13:30-17:00)

• Participants will study the main techniques to incorporate ESG in investment strategies covering simple screening approaches as well as active engagement strategies.
• Traditional portfolio construction concepts as well as the risk-return tradeoff will be briefly reviewed.
• Implications of sustainable investment strategies for expected returns as well as risk profiles of ESG-portfolios will be reviewed, critically assessed and evaluated within a consistent and comprehensive economic framework.
• In addition to equity markets, ESG-implications for other asset markets, in particular, corporate bond markets will also be presented.
• The lecturing will be complemented by case studies that provide specific, real-world situations and ask students to use the concepts discussed in class to solve the problems described in the case studies.

Session 5:     Regulation and Legislation related to Sustainable Finance, Prof. Dirk Zetzsche, Dr Marco Bodellini (Week 1 Day 4: June 10^th : 9:00-12:30 / 13:30-17:00)

• Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the Sustainable Finance Regulatory Horizon and the main obligations for financial market participants.
• European Commission action plan on financing sustainable growth and the EU Green Deal.
• Regulation 2020/852 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment (“Taxonomy regulation”).
• Regulation 2019/2088 on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial sector (the “SFDR”).
• Regulation 2019/2089 on low carbon and positive carbon impact benchmarks.
• Amendments to UCITS, AIFMD, MiFID II, Solvency II, IDD directives.
• Modifications to the Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

 

 

WEEK 2: June 27^th – June 30^th 2022

Session 6:     ESG-related Risk Management, Prof. Michael Halling (Week 2 Day 1: June 27^th : 9:00-12:30 / 13:30-17:00)

• By the end of that day, participants will have an overview of sustainability-related risks (their identification, measurement, management and frameworks).
• Detailed discussion of climate-related risks including physical as well as transitional risks.
• Brief discussion of scenarios frequently used in ESG-related risk management.
• Overview of quantitative methodologies to measure ESG-related risks including climate Value-at-Risk and climate-adjusted estimates of probabilities of defaults.
• Financial instruments that can be used to hedge against ESG-related risks.

Session 7:     Corporate Reporting of ESG-related information, Prof. Alexander Bassen, Prof. Kerstin Lopatta (Week 2 Day 2: June 28^th : 9:00-12:30 / 13:30-17:00)

• Participants will gain a comprehensive understanding of the Sustainable Finance Regulatory Horizon and the main obligations for financial market participants.
• European Commission action plan on financing sustainable growth and the EU Green Deal.
• Regulation 2020/852 on the establishment of a framework to facilitate sustainable investment (“Taxonomy regulation”).
• Regulation 2019/2088 on sustainability-related disclosures in the financial sector (the “SFDR”).
• Regulation 2019/2089 on low carbon and positive carbon impact benchmarks.
• Amendments to UCITS, AIFMD, MiFID II, Solvency II, IDD directives.
• Modifications to the Non-Financial Reporting Directive.

Session 8:     Disclosure of ESG-related information for financial products, monitoring of ESG information and reporting of ESG Data as well as ESG-related risks, Jane Wilkinson (Week 2 Day 3: June 29^th : 9:00-12:30 / 13:30-17:00)

• Participants will learn the major disclosure requirements at the level of financial products as well as for investment managers and financial advisors.
• Study the expectations of the regulator, with regard to embedding and documenting ESG-related information as well as ESG-related risks, at manager and product level, considering regulatory developments in UCITS, AIFMD, MiFID II and IDD.
• Standardization, disclosure and measurement problems of ESG investments.
• Nature, availability, reliability, consistency of data on investee companies and assets: listed securities, unlisted securities and other assets.
• Self-reported data versus data vendors/ data feeds.
• EU standards, labels and certification of financial products including requirements of EU Green Bond Standards, EU Ecolabel and other labelling schemes.
• Initiatives to regulate providers of ESG data and ESG research, ESAP (European Single Access Point).

Session 9:     Trends in the industry and in Luxembourg, Prof. Hakan Lucius, (Week 2 Day 4: June 30^th : 9:00 to 12:30)

This session will feature a series of short guest lectures on current and upcoming topics in sustainable finance, possible followed by a panel discussion on next important steps and important challenges.

• Overarching trends: What is driving the need for sustainability?
• Are we revising shareholder value maximization? From shareholder to stakeholder value.
• How are we tackling the societal challenge:  Can we manage what we do not measure?
• Does ESG outperform in the long term?
• How to best internalize externalities?
• Natural capital and biodiversity.
• Regulatory outlook.
• The next level: from ESG to ....
• Wrap up.

Session 10:      Exam (Week 2 Day 4: June 30^th : 13:30 to 15:30)

Session 11:      Get together and Round-up (Week 2 Day 4: June 30^th : 15:30 to 17:00)

Assessment and Grading

The certificate in sustainable finance will be graded on a pass/fail scale. There will be a final exam on the last day of the second week. In addition to the final exam, active participation in class will also contribute to a successful completion of the certificate.