Navigating Net-Zero: Climate Change's Impact on Corporate Strategy & Finance (VIRTUAL) – CCE

Navigating Net-Zero: Climate Change's Impact on Corporate Strategy & Finance (VIRTUAL) – CCE

Course Summary

Per Responsible Alpha, a leading ESG Integration consultancy, the relationship between ESG metrics and company performance shows that improved ESG scores lead to improved financial returns, employee retention, and reputational opportunity. 

This intensive virtual instructor-led course is designed to guide corporate executives and leaders through the dynamic world of sustainable finance, ESG, climate risk, nature-based solutions, and corporate strategy in the ‘Era of Sustainability’.

Elite professionals will learn to manage the potential economic and operational impacts of sustainability, ESG, and climate risks and opportunities in their organizations. We will review the way climate risk impacts various economic agents including corporations, energy firms, investors, banks, insurance/reinsurance companies, manufacturers and distributors in supply chains.  This workshop provides an overview of the “green” finance and trading markets created as a global response to climate change and will cover a wide range of financial products and instruments for financing sustainability and climate projects. We will review different initiatives to price carbon, from a market and regulatory perspective.

We will discuss the main recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) and see how different energy firms have adopted the framework to report climate risk exposures and guide portfolio management decisions.

We will also discuss effective design and applications of scenario analysis of climate change risks in the context of energy portfolios.

Finally, the class closes with lengthy discussions on nature-based solutions, impact investing, sustainable accounting, and corporate strategy.

The instructor has lectured in sustainable finance at Johns Hopkins University for almost a decade and has been directly involved in billions of sustainable finance transactions while engaging more than 40+ of the corporations in the S&P 500 regarding sustainability related issues. 

Course Content

Foundations of Climate Change

• What is climate change and differences between weather and climate.
• Trends of modern climate change (mean global surface temperature, sea ice coverage, etc.)
• Primary greenhouse gases (and aerosols), sources, global warming potential (GWP), atmospheric lifetimes, and relative contribution to climate change.
• Methods to differentiate between human-induced and natural climate changes
• Earth's energy balance, greenhouse effect, artic amplification and radiative forcing.
• Economic and ecological climate impacts (e.g., precipitation, sea level rise).
• Ocean's unique role in balancing the climate cycle and contributors to sea level rise.
• Climate tipping points
• Climate change adaptation.
• Trends in the energy system and relative carbon intensities of energy sources.
• Renewable and low-emission energy technology (including carbon capture and storage)
• Challenges (e.g., intermittency) in deploying each technology.
• Carbon budgets and emissions trajectories to stay within mitigation targets.
• ArcGIS mapping of climate risk.
• Tools to model both chronic and acute climate risks using scientific methods.
• Case study discussion
• Conclusion.

Sustainability

• UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs): Associated goals and targets.
• Key features of sustainable development and the goals of the 2030 Agenda.
• Strategies to reach the SDGs, materiality and alignment within the private sector.
• Principles for responsible banking
• Principles for responsible investment
• Main parameters of sustainability, social responsibility, and various environmental challenges.
• Understanding the relationship and intersection between sustainability, ESG, and climate change.
• Corporate reporting methods: annual reports, etc.
• Case study: Nestle sustainability commitments – agriculture and single-use plastics.
• Conclusion.

Climate Change Risk

• Linkages between climate risk and financial risk.
• Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) disclosure parameters and key recommendation features.
• Physical and transition risks: Practical examples
• Hazards/drivers, exposure, and vulnerability manifestation into physical and transition risks.
• Stranded assets and stranded asset risk.
• Acute and chronic physical hazards.
• Uncertainty, variability, and accuracy in hazard model predictions (e.g., frequency, timeframes).
• Data challenges modeling direct physical risk.
• Current state of climate hazard data availability and key consideration to interpret climate risk data.
• Indirect risks.
• Opportunities from physical and transition risks
• Main drivers of transition risk, categories and examples
• Industry trends for each transition risk category and strategies companies can use to reduce risk or manifest climate-related opportunities.
• Capital market trends: exchanges, credit ratings, financial accounting, insurance and reinsurance, equity, fixed income, loans, and governance. 
• Case study: Physical and transition risks for the real estate and electricity sectors.
• Conclusion.

Sustainability and Climate Policy, Culture, and Governance

• Relative scale of emissions by country.
• History of international climate agreements: Achievements and shortcomings
• Countries' obligations after joining various climate agreements.
• Climate change policies and goals: Before and after the Paris Agreement
• Mechanisms and plans in the Paris Agreement.
• Carbon-pricing policies of carbon taxes and emissions-trading schemes
• Benefits and drawbacks from carbon pricing mechanisms
• Climate policies in the power generation and transportation sectors.
• Sector-specific emissions reduction policies.
• Climate policy occurs at the national and subnational levels.
• Private-sector sustainability and climate investment policies.
• The role of public policy to promote the adoption of green finance.
• Introduction of climate change into Central Bank's supervision practices.
• Case study: How is the Bank of England incorporating climate-related risk into policies.
• Types of policy enforcement for sustainable investment and disclosure.
• Trends in private-sector climate frameworks.
• Broader societal and cultural impacts of climate change and policies.
• Investment methods: exchanges, credit ratings, financial accounting, insurance and reinsurance, equity, fixed income, loans, and governance. 
• Case study.
• Conclusion.

Green and Sustainable Finance: Markets and Instruments

• Sustainable, green, and climate finance: Definition and applications
• Trends and flows in sustainable and climate finance.
• Green, social, and sustainable bonds.
• Core components of the Green Bond Principles.
• Green loans and their markets.
• Sustainability-linked bonds and loans: Definition and examples.
• Sustainability-Linked Loan Principles and Sustainability-Linked Bond Principles: Core components.
• Sustainable funds, green funds, and other sustainable finance products.
• Integration of ESG and climate issues into investment and lending decisions.
• The role of shareholders in the sustainability strategy of a company.
• Existing and emerging approaches to defining sustainable and green finance.
• Trends in ESG disclosure requirements for companies.
• Regulatory trends in sustainable and green finance.
• Investment methods: exchanges, credit ratings, financial accounting, insurance and reinsurance, equity, fixed income, loans, and governance. 
• Case study.
• Conclusion.

Climate Risk Measurement and Management

• Approaches to measuring climate-related risks: Metrics and Tools.
• Difference and linkages between climate risk and other financial risks.
• Main financial risks: operational, credit, liquidity, insurance underwriting, market, and sovereign risk.
• Standard tools and techniques for measuring, modeling, and managing financial risks
• Climate value at risk (CVaR) framework.
• Incorporation of climate risk into existing ERM frameworks.
• Identification, measurement and monitoring of climate related risks
• Climate risk: integration in risk governance frameworks, risk appetite statements, and risk culture.
• Climate risk implications for corporate culture and governance.
• GhG accounting and reporting principles: direct and indirect emissions.
• Business goals and inventory design.
• Setting organizational boundaries.
• Setting operational boundaries: Scope 1, 2 and 3.
• Explain scope 4 emissions.
• Identifying and calculating GhG emissions.
• Reporting and verification of GhG emissions.
• Investment methods: exchanges, credit ratings, financial accounting, insurance and reinsurance, equity, fixed income, loans, and governance. 
• Case study/
• Conclusion.

Climate Models and Scenario Analysis

• Scenario analysis and climate scenario analysis.
• Use of climate scenario analysis by organizations.
• Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) scenarios
• Representative concentration pathways (RCPs) and shared socioeconomic pathways (SSPs).
• International Energy Agency (IEA) and other global reference scenarios
• Main scenario parameters, corresponding outputs, and their business application.
• Use of scenario analysis to assess transition and physical risk.
• Use scenario analysis to set corporate strategies and communicate with stakeholders.
• Scenario analysis and its role in mitigation of operational risk and resiliency planning.
• Climate scenario analysis by financial firms
• Investment methods: conservation easements, payments for ecosystem services, certifications and standards, blue finance (mangrove offsets, blue bonds, parametric insurance), exchanges, credit ratings, financial accounting, insurance and reinsurance, equity, fixed income, loans, and governance. 
• Case study.
• Conclusion.

Introduction to Net Zero

• Introduction to net zero.
• The spread of net zero.
• Targets.
• The implications of net zero for different actors.
• Transition plans.
• Interim targets and pathways.
• Use of metrics.
• Reporting.
• Investment methods: exchanges, credit ratings, financial accounting, insurance and reinsurance, equity, fixed income, loans, and governance. 
• Case study..
• Conclusion.

Nature-based Solutions

• Natural capital definitions.
• Linking natural capital services and benefits to society.
• Decline in natural capital and how this relates to planetary boundaries.
• The Great Acceleration: The effects of the accelerating human impacts clearly observable at the Earth system level, affecting all components of the global environment – land, coastal zones, oceans, and the atmosphere.
• International treaties: context and action.
• Calculation tools: Total Economic Value, direct market, indirect market, contingent valuation, trade-off analysis, and natural capital accounting tools.
• Biodiversity and conservation finance: Framework for nature-related target setting 
• Investment methods: conservation easements, payments for ecosystem services, certifications and standards, blue finance (mangrove offsets, blue bonds, parametric insurance), exchanges, credit ratings, financial accounting, insurance and reinsurance, equity, fixed income, loans, and governance. 
• Case study: Natural Capital Protocol and Rabobank – Friesland Campina and FarmStrong Foundation.
• Conclusion.

Impact Investing and Blended Finance

• The role of the private sector for achieving the SDGs - case studies and best practices.
• Introduction to impact investing and blended finance.
• Different approaches to attracting private capital.
• Choosing the right instrument to catalyze private investment.
• Impact-linked finance and pay-for-success instruments.
• The role of impact management.
• Misconceptions and mis-directions in blended & impact finance.
• Case studies: Impact, blended and innovative finance solutions from the field.

Corporate Governance and Sustainable Accounting

• Introduction to corporate governance and sustainable accounting.
• Sustainability risk management.
• Examine the sustainability-based interactions among corporate entities, their peers, regulators, the public, and other stakeholders in order to identify opportunities for improving the outcomes of these interactions.
• Examine how corporate structure affects business practices and how different industries are affected by the sustainability movement.
• Consider the balancing act that today's corporate leaders face as they uphold their corporate fiduciary duties and navigate evolving sustainability demands.
• Assess the impacts of business activities on the environment and pinpoint a company's positive and negative sustainability efforts.
• Review a corporate 10k to evaluate and identify a company's identified risks, examine ways that corporations disclose, report, and manage reputational risk, and discuss case studies.

Generating Profit in the Era of Sustainability

• Explore how values-informed purchasing and investment decisions, along with generational shifts in investment and consumption patterns, create opportunities for companies that adapt to trends in sustainability.
• Examine ways in which regulatory changes, growing scrutiny, and increased pressure by civil society create growing markets for products and services that have fewer impacts on people and the planet than conventional products and services.
• Identify how investment decisions can influence societal outcomes and how private, return-seeking capital can improve social and environmental outcomes by fostering more sustainable business activities.