Publication – Sustainable Finance professions
Sustainable finance must play a driving role in supporting the transformation of the real economy towards a low-carbon, inclusive model. To achieve this goal, the transformation of the financial sector’s model and activities is also a necessary condition, and players are already developing new practices and new offerings. Against this backdrop, is the unprecedented momentum generated by sustainable finance sufficient to meet the urgency of the Sustainable Development Goals and the Paris Agreement? To make this possible, concrete solutions need to be developed to build the finance of tomorrow, and one of the key challenges is to ensure that business expertise is matched with knowledge of environmental and social issues.
In order to better understand and support this dynamic, Finance for Tomorrow and Birdeo have joined forces to carry out this study on sustainable finance professions, covering both new professions and those that need to change in order to meet the challenges posed by sustainable finance.
What are the activities, knowledge and skills associated with these professions? What are the obstacles to the development of these professions within the financial sector job market? The aim of this study is to identify the level of integration of climate and sustainable development issues into the activities of the entire sector. It is based on exchanges with experts in sustainable finance and human resources managers, who shared their vision and experience with us. To provide solutions and encourage their dissemination, the study highlights promising best practices. For example, the introduction of incentives linked to ESG objectives, collective training programs, the mobilization of Executive Committee members or the creation of ‘transversal transformation cells’.
The study has three major conclusions:
- Training in sustainable finance needs to be professionalized and massively disseminated, under the mandate of human resources managers.
- This training effort must lead to the emergence of senior experts in sustainable finance, able to steer the strategic evolution of institutions in the sector.
- This dynamic must be used to attract young, committed graduates and help them progress at the heart of the sustainable finance ecosystem.
The main recommendation of this study is a call for the mobilization of human resources managers. To date, they have no mandate to steer the sustainable transformation of finance professions, nor do they have access to the necessary information, as sustainable finance expertise is not indicated in job descriptions. In addition, there is a growing need for senior profiles in sustainable finance, but the demand is struggling to find trained and qualified candidates who will be able to carry out the far-reaching transformation of companies, with the necessary legitimacy to take on the impact on long-term strategies and jobs. At the same time, a commitment to sustainable finance has become a key factor in attracting young talent, who are increasingly sensitive to environmental and social issues, and keen to work in organizations that reflect their values.
With this exploratory study, we wanted to assess trends in the finance job market with regard to environmental and social issues, establish initial findings on sustainable finance professions, and propose avenues for further reflection, in order to support this essential dynamic for the necessary transformation of the entire financial sector. But above all, we want to send a message to Human Resources managers: you too must be the actors of this transformation within your organizations!
“You must be the change you want to see in this world”.
Gandhi’s famous phrase should remind us that collective change will depend on each individual’s ability to assume individual responsibility, using the knowledge and tools relevant to his or her professional activity. We hope that this ground-breaking analysis by Finance for Tomorrow and Birdeo will pave the way for the kind of awareness-raising that is essential now and in the long term, and that the number of training courses in sustainable finance will multiply in the years to come!
