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Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Sustainable Finance Hub

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.

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Insights from sustainable finance experts

Our experts share their thoughts on building a sustainable financial system.

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Innovation

Exploring new pathways to enabling a net zero, nature positive and just future.

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Education programmes

Our education programmes are designed to help the finance sector support the transition to a sustainable future.

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Focus areas


  1. 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.  
  1. 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. 
  1. 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
  1. 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. 
  1. 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


Read more at: Climate Tango: Principles for integrating physical and transition climate-risk assessment with sectoral examples

Climate Tango: Principles for integrating physical and transition climate-risk assessment with sectoral examples

13 January 2022 – The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL) ClimateWise leads paper on integrating climate-related risk assessment.


Read more at: Understanding Corporates’ Transitions to Net Zero: Industry survey on net zero transition progress and challenges

Understanding Corporates’ Transitions to Net Zero: Industry survey on net zero transition progress and challenges

23 December 2021 – The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has published a business briefing for understanding corporates’ transitions to net zero based on a quantitative industry survey.


Read more at: Insurers in Paris-aligned climate transition: Practical actions towards net zero underwriting

Insurers in Paris-aligned climate transition: Practical actions towards net zero underwriting

13 December 2021 – The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL) ClimateWise initiative has published a new report on net zero underwriting commitment and the practical actions.


Read more at: Beyond net zero: People, nature and climate

Beyond net zero: People, nature and climate

3 December 2021 - Nick Villiers, Director of CISL’s Centre for Sustainable Finance, reflects on the role of the finance industry in taking a more active and assertive role in supporting, enabling and accelerating the transition to a more regenerative economy.


Read more at: Understanding the climate performance of investment funds

Understanding the climate performance of investment funds

29 July 2021 – Understanding the climate performance of investment funds should be made simple to all investors. Analysis from CISL’s Investment Leaders Group (ILG) found that the present disclosure of fund performance does not allow investors to understand and compare the alignment of funds with the Paris Agreement on climate change. The latest reports from the group now provides a tour of the assumptions and approaches behind existing methods, and introduces a simple and transparent disclosure method that enables investment managers to report the alignment of their portfolios with the Paris ambition.


Read more at: Handbook for Nature-related Financial Risks: Key concepts and a framework for identification

Handbook for Nature-related Financial Risks: Key concepts and a framework for identification

1 March 2021 – The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has published a handbook for understanding and identifying nature-related financial risks.


Read more at: Climate product innovation within the insurance sector

Climate product innovation within the insurance sector

30 June 2021 – The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL) ClimateWise initiative has published a new white paper on climate product innovation.


Read more at: Centre for Sustainable Finance
Centre for Sustainable Finance

Centre for Sustainable Finance

A ‘quiet revolution’ is underway in the global financial system as its leaders wrestle with the implications of global sustainability. Expectations from clients and regulators are climbing steadily, causing financial institutions to rethink current operating practices, and adopt longer term, more...


Read more at: Let’s Discuss Climate: The essential guide to bank-client engagement

Let’s Discuss Climate: The essential guide to bank-client engagement

The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL) Banking Environment Initiative has published a new guide to bank-client engagement, which aims to address the need for a market-wide transformation in how banks and their corporate clients interact.


Read more at: Investing in the age of climate transitions: The case for universal disclosure of Paris alignment by investment funds
Icebergs

Investing in the age of climate transitions: The case for universal disclosure of Paris alignment by investment funds

28 April 2021 – Understanding the climate performance of investment funds should be made simple to all investors. Lucy Auden, Senior Programme Manager for the Investment Leaders Group (ILG), analyses the current approaches to measuring fund climate performance and makes the case for a universal disclosure of Paris alignment. This analysis will be followed by a report in summer 2021 which proposes a disclosure methodology and explores the underpinning science, methods of emissions projection, and distribution of carbon budgets used by current approaches.


Centre for Sustainable Finance

Sustainable finance online course

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