Studying at York
Finance and Environmental Sustainability - ENV00113M
- Department: Environment and Geography
- 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
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Apply critical theories to evaluate contradictions and inconsistencies in the nature-finance nexus
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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.
Indicative assessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 100 |
Special assessment rules
None
Indicative reassessment
| Task | % of module mark |
|---|---|
| Essay/coursework | 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