Focus on Climate in the Sustainable Finance Expert Training from the Frankfurt School of Finance & Management
Author: Esther Meyer
Today I´m back with the final report of the series. Last time I wrote about the assignment, which I happily finished with success and which enabled me to register for the final exam which took place on September, 15th 2021.
But in turn, after the assessment we had a deeper look in the climate scenario and the scenario analysis. After an introduction to the topic an overview of the fundamentals and the history was described and the development of climate scenario analysis was explained, before the focus was put on the limitations and challenges. Climate scenario based science tools were presented and compared with each other.
In the last chapter the practical usage of the topics learned during the previous lessons was demonstrated on the basis of two case studies.
The first study was about the structuring of an impact fund. Step by step it was demonstrated how the fund was developed over time describing the equity selection process, the profiling of the fund and as well the operational constraints which appeared during the process. Focus was as well on the distinctions between ESG and impact.
The second study showed the set-up process for a social success note. The underlying case was the financing of safe drinking water solutions in Uganda. To better understand the situation in Uganda, the reader received a short introduction to the situation there, focusing on the most important challenges, among other the lack of access to clean water and sanitation facilities.
One of the key messages of this section is the definition of a social business as a business created and designed to address a social problem. It is financially self-sustainable and realized profits are reinvested in the business itself or to start another social business with the aim to increase social impact.
The case study explains the financial structure and the interactions between the investors, the social business, the outcome payer and the independent evaluator. A deeper look into the loan structure, the terms and targets for the outcome payment and the views of the different stakeholders involved was provided.
Overall I got a good insight into sustainable finance and it makes me really curious to learn more about the topic and especially future developments in this fast growing and changing area of finance and how the theory is transferred into practice.
I hope you have enjoyed the series and you are curious to learn more about sustainable finance, either with the program of Frankfurt School of Finance and Business or another program. I´m waiting now for the results of the final exams and looking forward to reading from you about the exciting courses you will visit.
