As the oldest Institute of bankers in the world, we have played a leading role in helping finance professionals develop and demonstrate the traditional banking values of stewardship, thrift, prudence and professionalism. Our early appreciation of the importance of strong professional and ethical values in banking has established us as a trusted and distinctive voice in the UK and internationally. More recently, the global financial crisis demonstrated, by their absence, just how important these traditional – universal - values are if, as a finance profession, we are to rediscover our sense of social purpose and reconnect finance with the customers, communities and societies we serve. 

At the Institute, we believe one of the ways we can best do this, is for our profession to support the transition to a sustainable, low carbon, socially just world, by putting sustainability and stewardship in the broadest sense at the heart of finance.  Going well beyond being a steward of depositors’ funds, as our Institute’s founders would have seen it, and being responsible stewards of our natural resources and planet for current and future generations.

"I believe the development of the Institute’s new Green Finance Certificate, the world’s first benchmark qualification for green finance professionals, is such a significant development. It’s also a development that I am extremely proud of. While there has been great progress made in rebuilding the finance profession over the last decade, we still need to do much more to reconnect finance and society and to rebuild people’s trust in our profession. Ensuring that sustainability and stewardship sit alongside credit, risk, operations and technology as key aspects of financial professionalism, will help us to do this, as well as helping current and future generations of Chartered Bankers and financial professionals to demonstrate the positive social purpose that finance can, and should have."  

Simon Thompson, Chief Executive, Chartered Banker Institute 

 

Latest Thought Leadership on Green Finance

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What is Green Finance?

“Any financial initiative, process, product or service that is designed to protect the natural environment and support the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon world; and/or manage climate-related and other environmental risks impacting finance and investment”

This is a broad definition which acknowledges the different dimensions of the concept of green finance,  while retaining an overarching focus on enhancing and sustaining the natural environment, and managing current and future environmental risks - paticularly, but no, exclusively, climate change. It highlights and recognises the two-way nature of the relationship. Finance and investment can help or harm the environment, while the environment can also positively or negatively impact the performance of investments and finance services firms. 

 

What is Sustainable Finance?

According to the UN - Sustainable finance looks more broadly at environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in both market practice and policy frameworks for banking, capital markets, investment and insurance.

 

Why study the Green Finance Certificate?

The Certificate is the world’s first benchmark qualification for Green Finance.  The Certificate provides learners with a comprehensive overview and understanding of the evolving Green Finance sector, covering:

  • Scientific background to Green Finance – climate science and the transition to a low carbon world
  • Global, international and national responses to climate change
  • Climate-related financial risks, stranded assets and other environmental risks
  • Key Green Finance principles, including the UN Sustainable Development Goals, TCFD, Green Bond Principles and Green Loan Principles
  • Importance of monitoring and verification
  • Green Finance products and services (banking, insurance and investment)
  • Green FinTech
  • Ethical dimensions of Green Finance and the Role of the Green Finance Professional

 

What is the Green Finance Strategy?

The Green Finance Strategy was published by the UK Government in July 2019. The strategy recognises the role of the financial sector in delivering global and domestic climate and environmental objectives. It sets out:

 

 

 

Green Finance Certificate

https://www.charteredbanker.com/qualification/green-finance-certificate.html

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Key Terms

Green Finance

Any financial initiative, process, product or service that is designed to protect the natural environment and support the transition to a sustainable, low-carbon world; and/or manage climate-related and other environmental risks impacting finance and investment.

Climate change mitigation

Projects and activities that aim to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and the rate of climate change.

Climate change adaptation

Projects and activities that aim to improve resilience to the effects of climate change.

Renewable energy

Energy that comes from a source that is not depleted when it is used or is naturally replenished within a human timescale.

Fossil fuels

Fuel that is formed from the decayed remains of plants or animals, such as coal and oil.

Biodiversity

The full range of ecosystems, species and gene pools in the environment – the full variety of plant and animal life on earth.

Embedded approach

An approach that sees the financial system as embedded in the economy, society and the environment.

De-carbonisation

Reducing the amount of carbon (e.g. carbon dioxide or methane) emitted from an agricultural, industrial or other process.

Divestment

The opposite of an investment, e.g. selling rather than buying an asset such as shares in a firm.

Net carbon footprint

Total greenhouse gas emissions associated with the production, processing and consumption of products and services, offset by activities to mitigate emissions, such as Carbon Capture and Storage.

Paris Climate Agreement

In December 2015, countries agreed to combat climate change and to accelerate and intensify the actions and investments needed to support the transition to a low-carbon world. The Agreement’s central aim is to strengthen the global response to the threat of climate change by keeping a global temperature rise in the 21st century below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels and to pursue greater efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5 degrees Celsius. The Agreement entered into force in November 2016, after countries accounting in total for at least 55% of total global greenhouse gas emissions ratified the Agr

Tragedy of the horizon

The mismatch between business, political and regulatory cycles, and the timescale needed to prevent climate change impacting on financial stability.

Stakeholder value approach

An approach that sees the role of business as generating value for all the stakeholders it serves.

Greenwashing

Making false, misleading or unsubstantiated claims about the positive environmental impact of a product, service or activity.

UN Sustainable Development Goals

17 objectives agreed by 193 countries in 2015 to address the major environmental, social and economic challenges of our time.