ESG Investing: Financial Decisions in Flux 專項課程

The ESG Investing: Setting Standards & Conducting Analysis course provides students with basic knowledge of traditional financial products with some fundamental concepts to help better define what ESG is, including the rationale behind its inception, and how it has developed. Through the series of video, webinar, and reading modules in this course, you’ll learn how to identify and describe the basic principles underpinning the “E”, “S” and “G” in ESG, as well as obtain a brief background of ESG’s origins and evolution. You should also acquire insights into certain global and domestic goals and frameworks that drive and support issuers’ ESG agendas for economic, financial, and ethical purposes, as well as learn how to examine and construct different investment strategies aligned with investment returns, such as negative/exclusionary screening and integration. You should also gain a clearer view of how businesses form their ESG strategies, as well as some of the risks they face, and how they may be mitigated.

Through this ESG Investing: Industry Impacts & Transformations course, students with basic knowledge of traditional financial products can explore how certain financial market sectors have been transforming, amid a heightened focus on risk factors that underpin the three pillars of ESG. For example, what led age-old, iconic companies such as Borden and Dean Foods to file for bankruptcy? How are traditional oil giants BP and Exxon Mobil managing the energy transition? And what steps are firms such as International Paper and WestRock taking to align their business operations with forestry concerns? Through a series of video, webinar, and reading modules, among other objectives, you’ll learn how to conduct critical analyses about certain market sector changes, including dairy, tobacco, energy, and forest products, as well as examine the potential role for certain commodities, as industries such as the auto sector undergo transformation. You should also be able to assess the potential impacts on the creditworthiness of certain high yield companies amid shifts in ESG strategies.

As ESG investing continues to evolve, so do the funding mechanisms many companies, organizations, and governments use to finance their stated goals. Indeed, ESG-focused financial products, or ‘green assets’, have been growing in volume – as well as by type. In the fixed income space alone, instruments available to investors include green bonds, social bonds, sustainability-linked bonds, climate awareness bonds, gender bonds, and others – not to mention a growing list of ESG-themed exchange-traded funds (ETFs).

Through this series of videos, webinars, and readings, students with basic knowledge of traditional financial products (e.g., bonds, ETFs) will learn how to describe various characteristics of green assets, including the supply, demand, and performance of green bonds, as well as holdings of certain ESG-themed ETFs, and discuss the recent growth of related fund flows. They should also be able to explain the principles and frameworks behind the issuance of different ESG-related fixed income products, as well as provide insights into how certain government and central bank policies may pose some critical challenges in this space.