Finance professionals are well placed to enable carbon-neutral transformation in organisations
A recent survey by ACCA has found that organisations globally are attaching more importance to environmental factors and expect significant change in business practices in order to meet net-zero targets, but need more support to increase access to, and awareness and knowledge of, green finance products.
The research, which tied in with the theme at the COP27 climate change conference this past November of transitioning the world's economies to carbon neutrality, reveals that a lot of organisations lack the requisite skills and expertise to develop, implement and manage robust ESG (environmental, social and governance) strategies. What is required is significant upskilling, or external recruitment from a highly competitive market with a small pool of experts.
But finance professionals are well placed to provide leadership in training and developing skilled resources to enable transformation and to embed ESG and sustainability best practices across organisations, by considering both financial and non-financial business drivers.
Knowledge-plus skills
The survey also found that businesses feel underinformed on climate finance opportunities and climate risk management. But finance professionals can play an essential role in helping organisations develop well-structured and de-risked sustainable development initiatives and portfolios of greener assets.
They can offer support with analysis, monitoring and reporting of ESG-related financial and non-financial data covering costs, benefits, risks and opportunities. They are also able to grasp the fundamentals of carbon accounting and pricing.
Finance professionals can act as effective partners and strategic advisers to the business by upskilling in:
• assessing business requirements
• analysing impacts
• developing strategic action plans
• considering the evolving global financial markets landscape
• sourcing and managing green finance products
• understanding and responding to emerging global sustainability disclosure requirements such as IFRS sustainability standards, Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), and Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD).
What is climate finance?
• Climate finance refers to local, national or transnational financing, drawn from public, private and alternative sources of financing that seek to support mitigation and adaptation actions that will address climate change.
• It is critical in the drive to enable the large-scale investments required to support recovery of nature, deliver on climate-change mitigation and adaptation actions, and significantly reduce greenhouse gases.
• An understanding of green finance innovations (eg green or social bonds, sustainability-linked loans, carbon credits, green investment funds) and blended finance options (eg loan guarant
