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2022　Sustainable Finance in light of climate changes and biodiversity

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Academic unit or major
Humanities and social science courses
Instructor(s)
Miwa Junpei 
Class Format
Lecture    (Face-to-face)
Media-enhanced courses
Day/Period(Room No.)
Wed5-6(W241)  
Group
-
Course number
LAH.A421
Credits
1
Academic year
2022
Offered quarter
1Q
Syllabus updated
2022/3/16
Lecture notes updated
-
Language used
Japanese
Access Index

Course description and aims

The growing attention to the climate changes has been drawn in the global financial market since the Paris agreement was set out in 2015. The year of 2021 is a sort of regulatory tipping point since governmental policy statements in light of climate changes has been made in the financial sector, which is shown in the statement of G7 Finance Minister and Governor of Central Bank Meeting 2021. These climate policy issues in financial sector are to be set and will be implemented over time, containing the climate disclosure of GHG emissions and integrating disclosed data and risk assessments with regard to the environmental activity of corporates and financial institutions. Building on the corporate financial disclosure along with the climate data, the metrics, gauging corporate activities that will contribute to reducing GHG emissions, are being developed. By learning the ongoing policy issues for climate-related matters, students will gain the basic knowledge and will be useful when you contribute to corporate and governmental activities in due course. The class will highlight the financial issues on disclosure, investments and so forth from sustainability perspective. On the top of that, biodiversity issues as well as climate changes is being developed under global attention. The class also highlights the biodiversity issues relating to the finance market and the approaches as to how we effectively gauge its economical impacts on biodiversity issues.

Student learning outcomes

The lecture will facilitate the understandings as to how the issues of climate changes and biodiversity will impact the businesses from financial and policy perspectives. Building on the lecture, we will seek to cultivate the students' knowledge on socially important issues like climate changes etc. and draw the attention to fostering further considerations to these policy area.

Course taught by instructors with work experience

✔ Applicable How instructors' work experience benefits the course
I have undertaken the various roles in the area of financial services for over 20 years. I have covered regulatory and policy issues in Japan Financial Services Agency “Kinyu-cho” for over 16 years. I have experienced international and regulatory standard-setting activities such as Basel II and III framework and engaged in setting the standards under global regulatory reforms after great financial turmoil in 2008. My career has extended to various global regulatory activities - FSB, BCBS, IAIS, IOSCO and APEC as well as NGFS which is for regulator’s network on sustainable finance. The WG's chair and vice-chair role have been experienced in APEC and IAIS respectively. For recent years in JFSA, I have taken the position of Director, FinTech and Innovation Office from 2018 and taken Assistant Commissioner for Innovation and Sustainable Finance form 2020. As the Assistant Commissioner, I was a member of climate risk working group in FSB and a steering committee member of NGFS in relation to the climate related policy considerations. Also, I engaged in the capital market committee in OECD in light of digital and climate-related issues.
Before entering into JFSA, I engaged in the structured finance relating to the large energy project of LNG (Liquefied Natural Gas) in JBIC. After that, I have been placing a high priority on the energy issues and this help me consider the policy issues in the context of sustainable finance. Please keep in mind that this lecture will not address the deep-dive topics from the perspective of climatology, meteorology, geophysics etc. as I am not an expert of these area."

Keywords

Climate Change, Biodiversity, Sustainable Finance, ESG, Impact Finance

Competencies that will be developed

✔ Specialist skills ✔ Intercultural skills Communication skills ✔ Critical thinking skills Practical and/or problem-solving skills

Class flow

・Class 1 to Class 7: basically in lecture (partly applying the group discussion especially on Class 5 and 7)
・All classes will be on lecture style using the materials made by the lecturer.
・At the end of each class, the lecturer will present the assignments which is not required to submit. However, doing homeworking assignments will help students facilitate writing the Interim Reports and Summary Reports which will be required to submit at the end of Class 5 and Class 7 respectively.
・Interim and Summary Reports are required to submit onto the filing box set in T2SCHOLA. The deadline of reports will be set and your submission should not be overdue. "

Course schedule/Required learning

  Course schedule Required learning
Class 1 Climate changes and Finance: Part 1 (learning about global attentions from Paris Agreement made in 2015 to the COP26 in 2021, green finance and transition finance towards net zero to 2050) Learning about footprints of sustainable finance (green finance, transition and so forth) from 2015 to now. At every end of class, home-working assignments will be provided while this is not required to submit. However, by doing the assignments, this will help you facilitate to write the Interim and Summary Report which is required to submit and subject to the assessment.
Class 2 Climate changes and Finance: Part 2 (learning about equities and bonds market, disclosure and audit issues, green-washing, stakehoderlism) Learning about equities and bonds market relating to disclosure and audit issues, green-washing and stakehoderlism. At every end of class, home-working assignments will be provided whilst this is not required to submit. However, by doing the assignments, this will help you facilitate to write the Interim and Summary Report which is required to submit and subject to the assessment.
Class 3 Financial regulators perspectives for climate changes and biodiversity - Part 1 (financial stability and addressing the unseeable "green-swan") Learning about policy perspective relating to climate changes and biodiversity. At every end of class, home-working assignments will be provided whilst this is not required to submit. However, by doing the assignments, this will help you facilitate to write the Interim and Summary Report which is required to submit and subject to the assessment.
Class 4 Middle review - lecture and group discussion / Submission of Interim Report Students are required to submit the Interim Report (approx.. 3000 letters in Jp, 2000 letters in Eng) after the class.
Class 5 Financial regulators perspectives for climate changes and biodiversity - Part 2 (expectations to financial institutions) Learning about policy perspective relating to climate changes and biodiversity. At every end of class, home-working assignments will be provided whilst this is not required to submit. However, by doing the assignments, this will help you facilitate to write the Interim and Summary Report which is required to submit and subject to the assessment.
Class 6 ESG and Impact investing Learning about Environment, Social and Governance elements on sustainable finance and uprising impact investing. At every end of class, home-working assignments will be provided whilst this is not required to submit. However, by doing the assignments, this will help you facilitate to write the Interim and Summary Report which is required to submit and subject to the assessment.
Class 7 Wrap-up review - lecture and group discussion / Submission of Wrap-up Report Students are required to submit the Interim Report (approx.. 5000 letters in Jp, 4000 letters in Eng) after the class.

Out-of-Class Study Time (Preparation and Review)

To enhance effective learning, students are encouraged to spend approximately 100 minutes preparing for class and another 100 minutes reviewing class content afterwards (including assignments) for each class.
They should do so by referring to textbooks and other course material.

Textbook(s)

Nothing required.

Reference books, course materials, etc.

While the reference material, literatures etc. will be provided thorough the lecture, "Principles of Sustainable Finance," Dirk Schoenmaker and Willem Schramade (2018) and "The green swan," BIS (2020) (https://www.bis.org/publ/othp31.htm) are good reference points for a basic recognition and you are recommended to overlook it. Through the lecture, references will be provided and it is highly recommended to learn such literatures spontaneously according to your interests.

Assessment criteria and methods

Interim-Report (50%) and Wrap-up Report (50%)

*Interim- and Wrap-up Report: Interim: over 2000 words (in case of English) / Wrap-up: over 4000 words (in case of English). The volume of words is just for your reference. The contents of reports are rather prioritized for assessment.

** Cares should be taken to the deadline of each report and place of points for filing reports on T2SCHOLA. And the deadline of filing will be set and please keep in mind that your submission is not overdue."

Related courses

  • LAH.A401 ： Digital Innovation in Financial Institutions
  • LAH.S437 ： Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences42:Consensus Building
  • LAH.S438 ： Essence of Humanities and Social Sciences43:Financial/Economic Activities and Corporate Strategy
  • LAH.A532 ： Decentralized Financial System and Economics

Prerequisites (i.e., required knowledge, skills, courses, etc.)

Hopeful: knowledge regarding finance and/or climate changes and biodiversity matters

Other

No classes will be given on April 13 (Wed).
Seven total classes will be held for this course: April 20 (Wed), April 27 (Wed), May 11 (Wed), May 18 (Wed), May 25 (Wed), June 1 (Wed), June 8(Wed).

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