The finance sector has a critical role in supporting our transition to a sustainable future. However, it's widely recognised that today's system does not reward long term thinking. Often, it can actually work against efforts to build a sustainable economy.
Through our convening, research, education, and innovation we help financial institutions, and businesses, and governments build a more sustainable financial system. Our work is underpinned by insights from CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance’s sector groups, made up of leaders from over 50 financial institutions across five continents.
Collaboration for Transformation
Working with over 50 global financial institutions across banking, insurance and investment, the Centre for Sustainable Finance is in a unique position to co-create opportunities to challenge current assumptions and lead change. We work with our members to translate high-quality research into practical solutions to advance both market and regulatory practices.
Our key collaborations:
Banking Environment Initiative
Some of the world’s largest banks working
to lead their industry in directing capital towards environmentally and socially sustainable economic development.
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Investment Leaders Group
Leading investment managers and asset owners with over $9 trillion under management working to help shift the investment chain towards responsible,
long-term value creation.
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ClimateWise
Comprised of leading insurers, reinsurers, brokers and industry service providers who share a commitment to reducing the impact of climate change on society, as well as the insurance industry.
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Sustainable Finance Insights
Horizon scanning research
Our thought leadership translates high-quality research into
practical solutions and frameworks for the finance sector.
Insights from sustainable finance experts
Our experts share their thoughts on building a sustainable financial system.
Education programmes
Our education programmes are designed to help the finance sector support the transition to a sustainable future.
Focus areas
- Integrating nature into financial decision-making: Working with key actors across the finance sector on identifying, assessing and manging nature-related risks (banks, investors, and insurance), addressing financial materiality and catalysing capital (re)allocation that protects and restores nature.
- Climate risk and resilience: Embedding resilience to environmental risk in routine financing decisions, including identifying and incorporating impacts of climate risk and disclosing these to be able to proactively understand and respond to these impacts.
- Enabling a just and equitable transition: Ensuring the transition to a net zero, nature positive economy is inclusive and equitable, including investing in quality jobs, small-medium enterprises, and across supply chains.
- International financial architecture: Developing an enabling environment to unlock private finance for nature and climate, identifying targeted actions and groups for mobilising public- and private-sector resources, with a special emphasis on Emerging Market and Developing Economies (EMDEs), where the need for such mobilisation is most acute.
- Shaping global frameworks: The Centre for Sustainable Finance is an official knowledge partner and early adopter of the Taskforce for Nature-Related Financial Disclosures, has contributed to the NGFS Conceptual Framework for Nature-Related Financial Risks to guide policies and action by central banks and financial supervisors and is a partner of the Africa Natural Capital Alliance.
Executive Education
Our education programmes are designed to bring rigour, clarity and confidence for leaders to respond to the sustainable finance challenges within organisations:
Sustainable Finance Foundations: Banking, Investment, and Insurance
This self-paced online course is designed for those working across banking, investment, and insurance looking to develop workplace skills to root their practices in long term, positive impact.
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Sustainable Finance 8-week online course
For professionals within the finance sector,
as well as others interested in harnessing sustainable finance initiatives to bring
about positive change, seeking to unleash transformative change by leading with sustainability-aligned decision-making.
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Custom programmes
Our customised programmes help organisations within the finance sector and beyond translate complex sustainability trends into strategic business decisions, enabling them to lead with purpose and create new forms of value.
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Fostering Innovation for Sustainable Finance
Through our Canopy and Accelerator team, we support groundbreaking innovation that has the potential to accelerate change across sustainable finance systems, from the application of AI to measure climate and nature risk for economic assets, to platforms that enable greener investments. Through convening our network of impact investors, we help high potential startups get the investment they need to scale.
Find out more about how we work with startups
Our experts
Dr Nina Seega, Director, Centre for Sustainable Finance
Sid Miller, Programme Director
Elizabeth Clark, Programme Manager, Investment Leaders Group
Sara Taaffe, Senior Project Manager
Thomas Vergunst, Programme Director, Finance Sector Education
Robert Barker, Programme Director, Sustainable Finance
Contact our press team
Resources and reports
Financing climate adaptation: what’s next?
4 July 2018
6 July 2018 – Miroslav Petkov, Director in S&P Global Ratings' Sustainable Finance Team, considers the possible growth of climate adaptation financing in the face of increasingly adverse environmental conditions.
30 May 2018
31 May 2018 – Approximately two-thirds of G20 member states have actively engaged with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), set up by Bank of England Governor Mark Carney to help the financial sector take account of climate-related issues.
30 May 2018
May 2018 – This report; Sailing from different harbours: G20 approaches to implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, reviews the progress made by the national regulatory agencies of G20 members in making the TCFD recommendations relevant to their national contexts. It considers actions taken by the national (and international in the case of the EU) regulatory authorities in underlining the relevance, and taking steps towards potential implementation, of the TCFD recommendations.
New tools and analysis from CISL published in G20 report to help financial firms manage climate risk
7 July 2017
11 July 2017 – For two years CISL has been a knowledge partner of the G20 Green Finance Study Group, with the resulting report, 'Enhancing Environmental Risk Assessment in Financial Decision-making', published at the end of the G20 summit. Kajetan Czyz, Programme Director, Sustainable Finance at CISL, discusses how the tools in the report aim to help financial firms carry out environmental risk analysis more effectively.
Five ways to mainstream green finance now
7 July 2017
11 July 2017 – How can the financial industry aid climate-related financial disclosures, enhance environmental risk analysis, and make better use of publicly available environmental data to analyse financial risk and inform decision-making on future investments, asks Dr Nina Seega, CISL Research Consultant and co-author of the G20 Green Finance Study Group’s background paper on Enhancing Environmental Risk Assessment in Financial Decision Making.
CISL meet with finance leaders to accelerate the transition to a green financial system
20 October 2016
20 October 2016 – Today a group of leaders from 22 leading finance sector institutions met to review achievements made by the G20 to date, and to develop the priority actions needed to push forward real progress in creating a greener financial system.
It's time for financial institutions to get serious on climate risk
7 September 2016
It's time for financial institutions to get serious on climate risk Paul Fisher, Senior Associate, University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership 7 September 2016 As environmental and climate risks surge, the world's financial system needs to take them into account – now. This year...
4 September 2016
5 September 2016 – World leaders meeting at the G20 Summit in Hangzhou, China, today issued a Communiqué recognising the importance of scaling up green finance and welcoming the voluntary options put forward by the G20 Green Finance Study Group (GFSG).
Environmental risk analysis by financial institutions – a review of global practice
2 September 2016
September 2016 – The G20’s new Green Finance Study Group asked the Cambridge Centre for Sustainable Finance to serve as Knowledge Partner and make recommendations on how to integrate environmental risk into mainstream financial decision-making.
31 May 2016
31 May 2016 – Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s Centre for Sustainable Finance will review how the world's financial institutions are developing new tools and techniques to integrate emerging environmental risks into decision-making.
