Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL)

Recent sustainable finance publications

61 results

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. Embracing a ‘beyond net zero’ strategy means we have an opportunity to protect not only cl…
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 re…
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.Identifying how nature loss poses financial risksNature loss poses financial risks, with more than half of global GDP highly or moderately dependent on nature. Dutch fina…
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.Click here to download the paper.This paper explores the critical role of the insurance underwriting in enabling the transition of the wider economy towards decarbonisation.…
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 forward-thinking strategies. This trend is set to con…
Centre for Sustainable Finance

Dr Nina Seega, Director of the Centre for Sustainable FinanceDr Nina Seega is the Director of the Centre for Sustainable Finance at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). She is an expert in the use of risk management tools to address environmental sources of risk in the financial sector. Since 2016 she has co-led the CISL t…
Let’s Discuss Climate: The essential guide to bank-client engagement

5 May 2021 – 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.Download the guideIt is imperative that banks and businesses a…
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 f…
Banking beyond deforestation

January 2021 – The University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL) has published a new report detailing how the banking industry can contribute to halting and reversing deforestation. The publication marked the conclusion of the ‘Soft Commodities’ Compact, which was a company-led alliance between the Banking Environment Initi…
Bank 2030: Accelerating the transition to a low carbon economy

30 January 2020 – This report authored by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership’s (CISL) Banking Environment Initative (BEI) highlights the need for banks to develop an ‘active mindset’ in order to accelerate the transition to a low carbon economy.Download the reportWatch the recording of the Bank 2030 webinarContextMo…
Walking the talk: Understanding consumer demand for sustainable investing

22 October 2019 – This study, commissioned by the Investment Leaders Group (ILG), provides insight into how decision-making behavior is influenced by the availability of information on the environmental and social impact of funds alongside standard financial data.Download the report hereWhile the financial performance of funds is readily accessible…
Financing sustainable hydropower projects in emerging markets: an introduction to concepts and terminology

30 September 2019 – This working paper is the first in a series of working papers emerging from the CISL’s contribution to the FutureDAMS project, with a specific focus on the questions around sustainable finance for sustainable hydropower projects in developing countries.Download the working paper here Hydropower is an important source of electric…
Trado: New technologies to fund fairer, more transparent supply chains

17 September 2019 – There is a growing understanding of the transformative potential of harnessing digital innovation and financial technologies to improve the sustainability of global supply chains. This report details the learnings and methodology of the collaborative project Trado, convened by the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainabi…
Embedding environmental scenario analysis into routine financial decision-making in Mexico and South Africa

November 2018 – Following on from its work as a knowledge partner to the G20’s Green Finance Study Group, CISL's Centre for Sustainable Finance has published reports on embedding environmental scenario analysis into financial decision-making in Mexico and South Africa.Read the Mexico report | Read the South Africa reportIn 2018 the World Economic…
G20 approaches to implementing the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures

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…