Finance will be instrumental in facilitating the transition to lower-carbon economies. This collaborative global doctoral reading group prepares faculty, post-docs, and doctoral students to train the next generation of finance professionals.
Why this collaborative global doctoral reading group?
Climate change is one of the most critical issues facing the planet and will require massive flows of capital. Finance will be instrumental in facilitating the transition to lower-carbon economies and adapting to the consequences of climate change. We will need far more research in climate finance and professors trained to teach this new material. Financial Economics of Climate and Sustainability (FECS) seeks to be an important, timely, and catalytic development in the climate finance space designed to support the development of the next generation of scholars and educators and to create a community of researchers in this field. This forthcoming book chapter by Peter Tufano provides the logic of the course as well data on participants and the growth of the field of Climate Finance.
A global reading group, delivered locally
FECS has both global and local elements. The twelve, two-hour synchronous Core Sessions, taught by scholars at nine universities, are available to students globally, but the experience is customized locally at each participating school by a local faculty convener. Schools or government bodies determine locally whether and how to offer the reading group. At some schools, a version of FECS is offered for credit, and local instructors may hold additional sessions and set course requirements (typically a paper). Elsewhere where a course is not available for credit, local conveners may permit students to audit the course, offer enrichment sessions, or supervise independent research projects. Contact your local coordinator for details.
To join us in FECS: FECS is available to scholars across the world. There are three simple steps to join. First, a faculty member agrees to be the local faculty coordinator. See the FECS Coordinator pages for more information and to apply as a faculty coordinator, please FILL OUT THIS FORM. Second, local faculty coordinators collect the names and email details of participants and submit them to FECS. Third, before our first class on 2 Feb 2027, FECS will send the participants information on joining, including details on the course Dropbox, Zoom links, and Slack channel.
Format and Timing of Sessions: FECS will be taught from February 2 to April 27, 2027 on Tuesdays from 11:00-13:00 EST/EDT. Note that because of differing national practices of adoption of daylight savings times (e.g., US-Mar 9; UK/Euro-Mar 30), check below for weeks where your session may be at a locally different time.
- Feb 2 – Introduction to FECS and climate science
- Feb 9 – Climate, Sustainability, Economic and Finance Theory 1
- Feb 16 – Climate, Sustainability, Economic and Finance Theory 2
- Feb 23 – Climate, Accounting, and Corporate Carbon Disclosures
- March 2 – Climate and Asset Pricing (Theory)
- March 9 – Climate and Asset Pricing (Empirics)
- March 16– OFF, no class
- March 23* – Sustainable Finance 1: Investing in Equity (Note: Class at 11:00 EDT; for participants in other time zones, please check local time).
- March 30 – Sustainable Finance 2: Investing in Debt
- April 6 – Climate and Corporate Finance
- April 13 – Climate, Banking, and Insurance
- April 20– Nature and Biodiversity
- April 27 – Climate and Household Finance; Wrap up
R2027 Reading List
The reading list for Spring 2027 will be available in December 2026. The reading list for 2026 can be found here.
Format and Timing of Core Sessions
The weekly two-hour core sessions will be held on Tuesdays in synchronous Zoom sessions. This is a global synchronous reading group, so no time is ideal; our classes are Tuesdays from 11 am-1 pm EST/EDT. (Note that because of differing national practices of adoption of daylight savings times (e.g., US-Mar 9; UK/Euro-Mar 30), check the schedule for weeks where your session may be at a locally different time.) Each Core Session will provide an overview of the topic and discuss 4-5 research papers, but discussions may be augmented locally at your school.
New: Faculty discuss FECS at ASW Conference
Members of the core teaching team discuss the logic and content of the course—and the field of climate finance—in this session from the 2024 Accounting in a Sustainable World conference session.
Please find more information here.