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Finance and Environmental Sustainability - ENV00113M

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  • Department: Environment and Geography
  • Module co-ordinator: Dr. Felicia Liu
  • Credit value: 20 credits
  • Credit level: M
  • Academic year of delivery: 2024-25

Module summary

Is “sustainable finance” an oxymoron? This module will introduce and critically evaluate the troubled relationship between finance and the environment, and explore innovative solutions to re-imagine the relationship between nature, society, and capital.

Module will run

Occurrence Teaching period
A Semester 2 2024-25

Module aims

Climate and sustainable development policy discourses place much emphasis on the role of finance in meeting global climate and sustainability objectives. However, the field of sustainable finance is also mired in scandals of greenwashing and fraud. In this module, students will be introduced to the foundational concepts of the relationship between finance, environment, and sustainability. Through case studies and examples, we will unpack why different financial instruments, innovations, or initiatives succeeded or failed in achieving sustainability objectives, and critically discuss whether finance can be a solution to crises in the Anthropocene.

Module learning outcomes

At the end of the module students will be able to:

  • Understand the foundation concepts of the relationship between finance, environment, and sustainability to analyse the efficacy of various sustainable finance innovations and initiatives

  • Apply critical theories to evaluate contradictions and inconsistencies in the nature-finance nexus

  • Propose and create interventions to reconcile the relationship between finance and the environment

Module content

The module will consist of a combination of interactive lectures and seminars. Lectures will be two hours long, consisting roughly of one hour of teaching various facets of the relationship between finance and the environment, and one hour of applying the teaching in various classroom activities, such as case study deep dives, debates, and presentations. Lectures will take place every week, and the final lecture will be a one-hour Q&A and revision session to prepare for the final assignment

Seminars will take place in weeks 2, 4, 8, and 9. Each seminar will consist of problem-based group work to introduce students to various contemporary debates in the field, including greenwashing (2x seminars), net zero (1x seminar) and biodiversity (1x seminar). Seminar exercises should also prepare students for their assessments.

Assessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Policy Brief		 N/A 100

Special assessment rules

None

Reassessment

Task Length % of module mark
Essay/coursework
Policy Brief		 N/A 100

Module feedback

Students will receive written feedback for both pieces of summative assessments, following DEG guidelines with presentations and scripts being annotated and a feedback form provided.

Indicative reading

Bigger, P., & Carton, W. (2020). Finance and climate change. In The Routledge handbook of financial geography (pp. 646-666). Routledge.

Castree, N., & Christophers, B. (2015). Banking spatially on the future: Capital switching, infrastructure, and the ecological fix. Annals of the association of American geographers, 105(2), 378-386.

Dempsey, J., & Suarez, D. C. (2016). Arrested development? The promises and paradoxes of “selling nature to save it”. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 106(3), 653-671.

Liu, F. H. M., & Lai, K. P. Y. (2021). Ecologies of green finance: Green sukuk and development of green Islamic finance in Malaysia. Environment and Planning A: Economy and Space, 53(8), 1896-1914.


Perkins, R. (2021). Governing for growth: Standards, emergent markets, and the lenient zone of qualification for green bonds. Annals of the American Association of Geographers, 111(7), 2044-2061


The information on this page is indicative of the module that is currently on offer. The University is constantly exploring ways to enhance and improve its degree programmes and therefore reserves the right to make variations to the content and method of delivery of modules, and to discontinue modules, if such action is reasonably considered to be necessary by the University. Where appropriate, the University will notify and consult with affected students in advance about any changes that are required in line with the University's policy on the Approval of Modifications to Existing Taught Programmes of Study.