Discover engaging green finance events this
Nov 2025. Browse the calendar and register for events that align with your
interests through the links below:
From the trading floors of Spain’s capital markets to university lecture halls shaping the next generation of financial professionals, Dr. Jesús López Zaballos has spent over four decades at the intersection of finance and education.
Now serving as Senior Advisor and Chair of the Training and Qualifications Committee (TQC) at the European Federation of Financial Analysts Societies (EFFAS), Dr. Zaballos continues to shape how professionals understand and apply sustainable finance.
In the turbulent wake of the Great Financial Crisis in October 2007, EFFAS set out to design structured training for analysts and investors in “extra-financials” under Dr. Zaballos’ chairmanship – laying the foundation for a new era of responsible investment and climate awareness.
“As a professional that has been dedicated for many, many years in the financial markets also to train young professionals to better develop their activity, I’m really proud of the success of CESGA,” said Dr. Zaballos.
“EFFAS has become the European reference and a global certifying body, with tens of thousands of certificates issued and CESGA continuing to grow strongly worldwide.
“However, we have to think what else we can offer, because for all of us as professionals, it’s a lifelong training activity.”
Bridging the Climate Risk Gap: The ECRA Programme
With the growing international recognition of CESGA, Dr. Zaballos had been approached by multiple professionals about the need to understand the impact of climate risks in business activities and investment portfolios.
“We saw a [knowledge] gap: climate risk requires specific capabilities – from climate science to financial quantification and regulation,” he said.
“If you want to be a specialist in sustainability…you need to have some knowledge about climate risk, and that’s why we decided to incorporate a new diploma.”
“The new EFFAS Climate Risk Analyst Programme was designed to close [the knowledge] gap with a curriculum that combines scientific fundamentals, risk modeling, financial quantification, and regulatory implications,” said Dr. Zaballos.
“It enables professionals to translate climate scenarios into financial metrics, investment decisions, and credible net zero plans.”
ECRA is structured into nine modules, from climate science and regulatory frameworks to risk identification, financial quantification, opportunities, Net Zero and adaptation, macroeconomic effects, sustainable finance, and climate risk across asset classes.
Similar to CESGA, the programme includes e-seminars, learning materials, references, and self-assessments, equipping both seasoned professionals and newcomers to identify exposures, stress portfolios, and manage climate risk in a fast-changing regulatory and investment landscape, said Dr. Zaballos.
“Climate risk is not only for financial professionals – it’s also for professionals that are in charge of climate in non-financial institutions and corporates, because climate risks affect not only financial institutions but especially non-financial institutions.”
Dr. Zaballos believes that professional qualifications, such as CESGA and ECRA, can transform careers because they connect technical skills with real market demand.
“Banks, asset owners, insurers, auditors, and consultants need profiles who integrate ESG and climate risk with analytical rigor. While CESGA validates ESG integration in investment and reporting processes with a 150-minute exam combining test and case study, ECRA adds the quantitative layer of climate risk,” said Dr. Zaballos.
He believed that the demand and opportunity for climate risk skills is strongest in risk management, banking, insurance, asset management and ESG assurance.
Growing Asia’s Sustainability Talent and Lifelong Education
The prominence of EFFAS has grown significantly in Asia, and the Pan-European grouping of National Societies of Financial Analysts now has partners throughout the region in Singapore, Malaysia and Hong Kong.
“Asia for EFFAS is very important because it’s a vast market, with energy transition and global supply chains. In Asia, the challenges are regulatory diversity, and of course, like in Europe, we have an urgent need for certified talent,” said Dr. Zaballos.
CESGA has been recognised by the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) as compliant with the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS).
Dr. Zaballos is also a member of the Advisory Council of the International Financial Reporting Standards (IFRS), and has been in conversations to expand the CESGA programme’s explanations on the S1 and S2 of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB).
“Future leaders need an interdisciplinary mindset: finance, data, regulation, and climate science. They also need rigor and humility to measure materiality and uncertainty, and communication skills to translate risks and opportunities into KPIs (Key Performance Indicators) and decisions,” said Dr. Zaballos.
“To be a certified professional shows that you understand the main topics of different activities, because you have to work on real cases, master frameworks like ESRS or TCFD (Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures), and commit to continuous learning,” said Dr. Zaballos.
“Leadership in sustainable finance and climate risks is a marathon of lifelong education.”
[Idea Exchange] Dr. LEUNG Chun Kai (CK) Executive Deputy Director and Head of Public Policy and ESG, HKU Global Society and Sustainability Lab (GSSL)
Climate adaptation is often treated as a
technical issue—a matter of engineering better flood defences, deploying green
infrastructure, or unlocking more climate finance. But our new study “Populism
vs. the Planet”, just published in Research & Politics, reveals that the real
challenge goes much deeper. It lies in politics—specifically, in how different
kinds of leaders shape a country’s institutional readiness to adapt.
Climate Adaptation: The Governance Test
Our results show that leadership style isn’t just a background factor—it’s a determinant of resilience.
Populist governments, whether left- or right-leaning, tend to weaken a country’s climate adaptation capacity, but they do so in different ways:
Right-wing populists often reject climate science or dismiss international norms, redirecting funds toward infrastructure or nationalist development projects. While such spending can produce incidental benefits—like improved flood defences—it rarely forms part of a coherent adaptation strategy.
Left-wing populists, by contrast, prioritize redistribution and short-term welfare spending. In doing so, they may unintentionally undermine the fiscal stability and institutional capacity needed for long-term adaptation planning.
The key takeaway: climate resilience
depends not only on finance and technology but also on institutional trust,
policy continuity, and governance credibility.
Why This Matters for ESG and Sustainable
Finance
For ESG and green finance professionals,
these findings have direct implications. Markets and investors often assume
that adaptation is mainly about project pipelines, risk modelling, and access
to capital. But our data suggest that political context can amplify or erode
the effectiveness of climate investments.
In countries where populist rhetoric erodes
institutional independence, adaptation finance faces higher political risk.
This isn’t just about volatility—it’s about credibility.
When governments undermine regulatory stability, international financiers and development banks hesitate to invest. Conversely, strong governance and predictable institutions act as de-risking mechanisms, enabling blended finance and long-term adaptation partnerships.
This insight resonates with the global ESG
community’s ongoing shift from “what to fund” to “how governance shapes
outcomes.” Climate resilience cannot be built on weak foundations; ESG
credibility is inseparable from institutional integrity.
Hong Kong’s Wake-Up Call
Just days ago, Super Typhoon Ragasa
battered Hong Kong with record-breaking winds and rainfall. The flooding,
fallen trees, and disruptions reminded us that adaptation is not abstract—it’s
immediate, local, and deeply social.
The storm exposed the same governance challenges we write about: fragmented coordination, underinvestment in infrastructure resilience, and the public’s uneven trust in institutions.
Yet it also showed what works—transparent communication, well-resourced emergency systems, and community cohesion.
These are not merely administrative details; they are the ESG foundations of resilience. When institutions function transparently and consistently, communities recover faster, businesses rebound sooner, and investors stay confident.
From Political Risk to Political
Opportunity
Our study doesn’t end with critique—it
offers a path forward. If political leadership shapes climate readiness, then
so can deliberate design of institutions that outlast leaders.
For governments and businesses alike, this
means:
Embedding adaptation into fiscal and regulatory frameworks, not just project portfolios.
Framing climate policy in terms that resonate politically—jobs, public health, and equity.
Empowering local and community-level actors who maintain continuity amid national political swings.
In short, climate adaptation can thrive
even in turbulent political environments—if we invest in institutions, not just
infrastructure.
A Call to ESG Practitioners
In the ESG and green finance world, we often focus on taxonomies, disclosures, and carbon metrics. But the politics behind them—the credibility of institutions, the leadership that implements them—determine whether our efforts translate into real resilience.
As populist movements reshape global governance, the ESG community must learn to read political signals as part of climate risk.
That means integrating
political-institutional analysis into due diligence, risk assessment, and
sustainable finance frameworks.
Adaptation is not merely about surviving
climate shocks—it’s about governing through uncertainty.
The more we understand the political
economy of resilience, the better we can deploy capital to where it matters
most.
