Climate change risks hidden within financial institutions’ balance sheets

The world has become increasingly aware of the mounting dangers posed by climate change. Historically, financial institutions have approached climate change through the lens of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR). Climate risk assessments have often focused on managing impact of an institution’s operations and financings on the environment, considering the bank’s responsibilities as a “corporate citizen”, and by extension, aiming to safeguard the institution’s reputation. With increasingly high financial stakes and growing external pressures, the pure CSR approach is no longer sufficient. Climate change has become a financial risk and must be treated as such.

This course has been designed for staff members of financial institutions, micro-prudential and macro-prudential authorities who wish to understand the risks that climate change may pose for them. In addition to providing topical content and practical tools, this course will be a platform to stimulate exchange and debate between public officials and private practitioners.

This course focuses on the risks that climate change poses to the financial services sector. We will not only examine how the risk landscape has been altered by climate change, we will review practical approaches for quantifying their impact and discuss best practices for integrating climate risk into the risk management framework. Course participants will discuss how to approach risk disclosure and build transparency around climate risks.