The training is entitled International Sustainable Finance ISF® and International Sustainable Business ISB®. It is a unique and comprehensive online course for education and certification of ESG (environmental, social and management criteria) experts which also includes climate criteria. More than 100 professors from around the world were involved in the preparation of its curriculum, including three Nobel laureates.

This educational curriculum was supported by the most reputable global institutions that create policies for sustainable development and climate change, but also financial and management operations and criteria: UN-FAO, UNFCCC, UNEP (UN Environment Program), UN-IFAD, UN- WOMEN, GREEN CLIMATE FUND, World Bank and many others.

The education consists of three levels. The first level is the foundation of the knowledge of all criteria and is intended for EVERYONE. The second level is intended for the management level in corporations and government bodies and services, and it is a continuation of the first level. The third level is for professionals who have been involved for years in reporting and consultants who will advise companies and draft their business plans and strategies that will need to include both ESG goals and criteria.

The Paris Agreement has set the goal of reducing CO2 emissions, and outlined the transition to a low-carbon economy - or sustainable economic development - for the whole world. This also includes strengthening of the capacities of states to combat the consequences of climate change, and education at the global and national levels is certainly one of them. The instrument for the transition to a sustainable economy are the so-called ESG criteria, and their introduction will soon become mandatory for corporations and their managers.

It is the integration of these ESG criteria that will contribute to transparent and ethical business in the broadest sense and in all company segments.

Mandatory disclosure of sustainability data in the financial services sector are prescribed primarily by the EU SFDR Regulation, which entered into force on 29 December 2019, and to a lesser extent by the EU Taxonomy Regulation, which is expected to enter into force on 1 January 2022. The purpose of these disclosures is to enable and facilitate end investors to make informed investment decisions and prevent the so-called greenwashing.

Companies that recognize such development, that deal with those challenges, and start implementing the necessary processes to achieve ESG goals will operate with a higher return on investment and will have a better access to cheaper sources of financing than those companies that keep traditional policy of managing their resources.

More information is available at: https://www.iica-iase.com/