Financial Materiality of ESG: Integrating ESG into decision making and reporting

Redcliffe’s ESG criteria course expert is a thought leader, strategic advisor and professional trainer specialising in emerging markets, international supply chains and sustainability issues. With experience in fixed income, commodities financing, syndicated loans, fintech and agritech, he brings a wide range of experience to some of the most dynamic areas of banking. He has worked with international banks, multilateral financing institutions, hedge funds, and investment funds across the globe, and with multinational corporations that have operations in Africa.

Our specialist has extensive experience as a presenter, lecturer and trainer, both through his work in banking and as a speaker on the international conference and webinar circuit. He has delivered professional training on a diverse range of topics, including structured commodity finance (for Afreximbank in Egypt and Kenya), the African fintech landscape, ESG / sustainable finance and the impact of ESG issues on international trade and supply chains.

He has been a guest lecturer at King’s College London (KCL), SOAS, the Chicago Booth School of Business and the Hult International Business School, presenting on fintech in emerging markets and the intersection between disruptive technology and sustainability. He also appears regularly in the press and media as a commentator on issues related to African markets, international trade, commodities, fintech and ESG.

Before setting up his firm, Kleos Advisory Ltd, in 2019, our ESG investment course leader was Head of Research at the pan-African bank, Ecobank. Here he oversaw a team of a dozen analysts spread across the bank’s African footprint who produced research on a fixed income, currencies and commodities (FICC) for the bank and its clients. He was also head of the bank’s UK Representative Office in London, which included the bank’s teams managing relationships with multinationals and international organisations such as the World Bank, the IFC and World Vision. Before working at Ecobank, he was a Senior Economist at the Economist Intelligence Unit (EIU), covering nine African countries and 25 commodities, divided between industrial raw materials and food, feedstuffs and beverages.

The trainer holds a First-Class BA in Hispanic Studies (Spanish & Portuguese) and a PhD in political science, both from the University of Bristol. He also has a Certificate in Economics from Birkbeck University and has undertaken various training in structured commodity finance and global supply chains. He is fluent in English, French and Spanish and trains in all three languages. With such a strong career history, delegates are in highly experienced hands when choosing ESG criteria training at Redcliffe.

• Redcliffe’s ESG investment course assesses company and client vulnerability to financially material ESG issues and integrates ESG into decision-making and reporting.
• Understand what factors are driving its growth and importance to regulators.
• Understand how environmental, social and governance factors can impact financial performance, and their transmission channels to revenue, cost, CAPEX and OPEX.
• Become familiar with global ESG frameworks, including the SDGs and the Paris Climate Agreement, and evolving reporting requirements, such as TCFD.
• Gain awareness of their clients’, customers’ and stakeholders’ expectations regarding ESG and the risks and opportunities these may pose to companies.
• Appreciate the difference between physical and transition risks, how they manifest and how they can be managed.
• Discover and explore the different approaches used to measure ESG risks and mitigate their impacts.
• Apply learnings from your ESG criteria training during two group-based exercises assessing two sectoral-based ESG case studies on financial material ESG impacts.

• Redcliffe’s ESG criteria course heavily focuses on how sustainability and ESG factors impact business and the economy.
• Delegates gain a thorough analysis of the key concepts and terminology used in the ESG space including components of ESG, physical and transition risk, and dual materiality.
• A comprehensive overview of approaches, frameworks and tools used for assessing and mitigating the financially material impacts of ESG risks.
• ESG criteria training comes with a global learning perspective based on international ESG experience.
• Practical application via group exercises will be applied in the session, embedding knowledge and best practices for assessing and mitigating ESG impacts. We find this works best as it provides a better all-round learning experience.

ESG criteria training is suitable for:

• Banking and finance professionals, including ESG managers and coordinators who want to build their knowledge and understanding of ESG issues. This includes the key concepts and approaches, the main frameworks and tools for assessing and managing ESG risks and impacts, and the regulatory and reporting landscape.
• Managers and risk professionals who wish to understand and quantify the financial materiality of ESG impacts and establish or improve ESG risk management and control frameworks within their organisation.
• Senior managers in banks, institutions, and organisations wishing to better understand the ESG risks that might impact their operating environment and how they might be managed.

Assessing the impact of ESG risks on financial performance is becoming a critical part of strategic ESG decision-making and a growing reporting requirement from regulators. This puts the onus on companies to build internal capacity to understand the risks facing their operations, assess their impacts, report on them and develop measures to mitigate them.

At Redcliffe Training, our ESG investment course provides a concentrated approach, covering all necessary elements. By the end of the course, you’ll be able to provide delegates with a thorough understanding of what ESG risks are, their material impacts, and the approaches, frameworks and tools used to assess ESG risks and consequences. You will then have the skills to integrate this into strategic decision-making and regulatory reporting processes.