Beginner'S Guide: Net Zero And The Sustainability Landscape

From the Paris Agreement to Sustainability Disclosures: Emissions, Climate Risks, ESG, and the EU Reporting Frameworks

What you'll learn

Learn about ESG and Sustainability, why it matters for Businesses and How they are changing the Economy

Understand the goals of the Paris Agreement and the principle of Net-Zero Transition

Understand how Climate Risks become Financial Risks and their impact for Businesses and Banks/Investors

Learn about the EU's latest Sustainability Regulations and best practices for avoiding Greenwashing

Understand what is Behind the Pledges to Reduce Emissions and the Economic Implications of De-Carbonizing Businesses

Understand the key Trends, Metrics, and Frameworks that are required under sustainability reporting

Learn why implementing ESG criteria into Decision Making leads to better business outcomes

Learn about Carbon Pricing, Carbon Markets and their Trends

Requirements

No pre-requisites besides an interest in Sustainability, ESG and Net-Zero Transition topics for Businesses

Description

The topics discussed in the course are ones that appear in the press and social media every day, engaging more and more discussion and attention. This course explains the basic concepts and terminology behind Sustainability, ESG, Climate Risks and the developments in reporting/Disclosures. The course is ideal for anyone who wishes to understand the concepts around Climate Change and Sustainability, be aware of what they mean and why they are important. It is a short course, that includes simple explanations and a few practical examples. The aim of the course is not to form experts in each of the topics, but to give anyone a fair understanding of them, so that they may engage in a conversation about the issue with someone, or better understand daily press and regulatory news, with a fair basis of knowledge.The course explains what are Climate Risks, and why the concerns about their impact are leading companies and the Financial Sector to change their strategy and priorities. It explains why ESG is seen as a Risk Mangement Tool that helps companies be self critical of their impact in the society and planet but also creates resilience towards new evolutionary risks. In the course, I make the link between all these topics, leading to the understanding of why there is a new set of regulatory impositions towards analysing, measuring and disclosing ESG related risks.These topics are very actual and evolve by the day, and sooner or later will become part of any business, company or financial institution, with implications in all levels of the organsations and in all job roles. I aim at bringing an introduction easy to understand that can help anyone at any level of an organization to embrace the changes that come with new sustainable strategies and the new goals and tasks that come ahead. All jobs will be at a certain point in time affected in some way by the Sustainability problematic, so I believe it is time for anyone to have the basic knowledge around these issues. The course brings value added to anyone who wishes to understand what this all means, flavored by someone who is hands on on real life implications, from decades of experience in managing and advising businesses.

Overview

Section 1: Introduction: New Evolutionary Risks require New Business Approaches

Lecture 1 Introduction

Lecture 2 Global Warming, Paris Agreement, Net-Zero Transition Pledges

Lecture 3 Why Corporate and Social Responsibility (CSR) Evolves into ESG

Section 2: Evolutionary Risks and ESG as a Strategy

Lecture 4 New concerns about Emissions Reduction and Social Impact

Lecture 5 ESG: a New Holistic Strategy for Businesses

Section 3: Climate Risks as Financial Risks and their Impact in the Economy

Lecture 6 Climate Risks: Physical Risks and Transition Risks

Lecture 7 The Impact of Climate Risks on Businesses

Lecture 8 Scope 1, 2 and 3 Emissions and the Emissions Gap

Lecture 9 The Carbon Markets and Carbon Pricing

Lecture 10 Accounting and Reporting Emissions: The Green House Gas Protocol

Section 4: Emerging and Developing: Sustainability/ESG Disclosures and Standards

Lecture 11 Sustainability/ESG Disclosures at par with Financial Statements

Lecture 12 Triple Bottom Line/Double Materiality Concepts

Lecture 13 Standards, Frameworks, Certifications: GRI, SASB/IFRS, SBTi, B Corp, TCFD

Lecture 14 ESG Ratings - What For are They

Section 5: Regulatory Requirements and Reporting Landscape in the EU

Lecture 15 The role of the ECB

Lecture 16 EU Taxonomy

Lecture 17 The EU SFDR - Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation

Lecture 18 The EU CSRD - Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive and Climate Scenarios

Lecture 19 Combating Greenwashing and Avoiding Litigation

Section 6: Summary, Expected Developments, Job Opportunities

Lecture 20 Sustainable Finance: Opportunities Grow in the Financial Sector

Lecture 21 New Jobs and Roles in the Sustainability Industry/Size of Market

Lecture 22 Expected Developments and Focus Areas Going Forward

Lecture 23 Final Remarks

Anyone interested in understanding Sustainability and ESG and making sense of the Net Zero Transition topic,Junior employees, recent hires or recent graduates that intend to develop a career in Sustainability in any company,University Students in Economics that want to learn about the impact of ESG and Sustainability in Businesses,Job Seekers preparing for job interviews in the Sustainability field