GRA 6567 Global Sustainability Issues and Finance
GRA 6567 Global Sustainability Issues and Finance
The course provides a broad introduction to the sustainability, climate change and social equity issues the world faces. It surveys the facts, values and challenges of sustainable growth. The focus is on the trade-offs that society and humanity at large faces, and the role of business, financial markets, governments and regulation in achieving the UN 2030 Sustainable Developments Goals (SDG). The course provides a rigorous analysis of global sustainability related issues, covering the relevant theories of climate change, externalities and public goods, international cooperation mechanisms. The course’s central theme is role of financial markets, and financial management in addressing ESG concerns, and how the different sectors of the financial markets (equity, fixed income, banking and insurance) are incorporating sustainability issues.
Standard finance and economic models ignore environmental and social concerns. Nature and its services are assumed to be freely available. However, the world’s current situation clearly demonstrate that ecological resources are limited. Business, finance and economic models of the future must therefore incorporate social equity concerns and scarcity of environmental resources if they are to be useful tools to address sustainability issues.
This introductory course gives students insight into; how can businesses internalise their footprint in society? How can Corporate Governance be adapted to accommodate a more sustainable business practice? How can long-term institutional owners contribute in making businesses reach their long-term sustainable development goals? What will this have to say for choice of strategies and business models? These questions and more will be addressed in this course - all in a global context.
The students by the end of the course will
- Understand the global and local sustainability challenges our society are facing; how economics and finance play a central role in finding solutions.
- Understand the different levels of sustainable finance; from finance as usual to sustainable finance 3.0.
- Understand the concept of externalities; how they can be addressed through internalization or regulations, and the limits of either approaches.
- Understand the need for internationally coordinated regulation and disclosure of companies’ practices.
- Understand the role and limitations of financial markets and financial instruments in addressing sustainability, challenges
- Understand how a company’s corporate governance can contribute to it reaching its long-term sustainable development goals.
- Understand the impact sustainable development goals have on choice of business strategies, and how ESG can be fully integrated in companies business models.
- Read and understand scientific studies and articles of the various disciplines that relate to sustainability issues.
- Develop rigorous and holistic arguments regarding the sustainability goals, based on economic and financial theories as well as practical political and feasibility considerations.
- Identify externalities and whether and the extent to which they can be internalized.
- Evaluate companies’ corporate governance and how it may hinder or contribute to addressing sustainability concerns.
- Evaluate companies’ choice of strategy and business model and how it reflects both the opportunities and challenges of sustainability.
- Apply updated financial models incorporating ESG concerns to evaluate financial instruments.
- Clear understanding of the main global sustainability issues and the different approaches to address them.
- Ability to recognise and analyse practical problems of sustainable development and to propose achievable, technologically appropriate courses of action, based on sound financial and economic analysis.
- The history of our understanding of global sustainability from Hans Carl von Carlowitz, through the Brundtland Report and the Stern Report, to the UN SDGs.
- The challenges of sustainability: natural resources, climate, inequality, poverty.
- The different aspects or dimensions of sustainability: Sustainable development, sustainable finance and sustainable business models.
- Externalities, internalization and public goods
- The role of finance and financial markets to address sustainability issues
- The different levels or stages of sustainable finance; from finance as usual to sustainable finance 3.0.
- ESG and its integration through integrated value and reporting
- Corporate governance and sustainability
- Strategy and business models’ role in the transition to sustainable business.
- Investments and long-term value creation
- Banking and new assessments of lending
- The insurance market and long-term risk
- International political economy and the environment
- Lectures on economic and finance theory
- Workshops and student presentations on a variety of sustainability issues
The current reading list is preliminary and incomplete. Further articles and readings may be assigned at the start and during the course of the semester.
Please note that while attendance is not compulsory in all courses, it is the student’s own responsibility to obtain any information provided in class.
This is a course with continuous assessment (several exam components) and one final exam code. Each exam component is graded by using points on a scale from 0-100. The components will be weighted together according to the information in the course description in order to calculate the final letter grade for the examination code (course). Students who fail to participate in one/some/all exam elements will get a lower grade or may fail the course. You will find detailed information about the point system and the cut off points with reference to the letter grades when the course starts.
At resit, all exam components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course.
All courses in the Masters programme will assume that students have fulfilled the admission requirements for the programme. In addition, courses in second, third and/or fourth semester can have spesific prerequisites and will assume that students have followed normal study progression. For double degree and exchange students, please note that equivalent courses are accepted.
Covid-19
Due to the Covid-19 pandemic, there may be deviations in teaching and learning activities as well as exams, compared with what is described in this course description.
Teaching
Information about what is taught on campus and other digital forms will be presented with the lecture plan before the start of the course each semester.
| Assessments |
|---|
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Invigilation Weight: 50 Grouping: Individual Support materials:
Duration: 3 Hour(s) Comment: Individual written exam under supervision on the economic theories Exam code: GRA65671 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 20 Grouping: Group (2 - 3) Duration: 2 Week(s) Comment: Assignment 1 (case study or short paper) Exam code: GRA65671 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Submission Form of assessment: Written submission Weight: 20 Grouping: Group (2 - 3) Duration: 2 Week(s) Comment: Assignment 2 (case study or short paper) Exam code: GRA65671 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
Exam category: Activity Form of assessment: Class participation Weight: 10 Grouping: Individual Duration: 1 Semester(s) Exam code: GRA65671 Grading scale: Point scale leading to ECTS letter grade Resit: All components must, as a main rule, be retaken during next scheduled course |
| Activity | Duration | Comment |
|---|---|---|
Teaching | 36 Hour(s) | |
Prepare for teaching | 72 Hour(s) | |
Student's own work with learning resources | 30 Hour(s) | |
Group work / Assignments | 30 Hour(s) | |
Examination | 3 |
A course of 1 ECTS credit corresponds to a workload of 26-30 hours. Therefore a course of 6 ECTS credits corresponds to a workload of at least 160 hours.