P3S Academy delivers COP27 sustainable finance masterclass
On Monday 7 November the Public and Third Sector Academy for Sustainable Finance (P3S Academy) at the University of Oxford held it’s first in person training course. Taking place on the side lines of COP27 in Sharm El-Sheikh, the ‘COP27 Sustainable Finance Masterclass’ was designed to provide participants with a deeper understanding of sustainable finance, and enable them to apply new ideas, research and networks to their roles within the public and third sectors. Scheduled on the opening day of COP27 the Masterclass was also intended to provide participants with immediately actionable learning that could impact climate conversations and negotiations over the subsequent 2 weeks of the conference.
Places on the course were kindly funded by philanthropy and were open to public and third sector employees only. The Masterclass received over 130 applications from prospective candidates and of these 40 were selected to attend. This included representation from organisations included the Egyptian Financial Regulatory Authority, World Resources Institute, Madagascan Ministry of Environment and Sustainable Development, Ellen MacArthur Foundation, African Development Bank, and the Zimbabwean Ministry of Environment, Climate, Tourism and Hospitality Industry; more than 70% of attendees were from the Global South.
The Masterclass was led by Dr Jacob Schumacher and Dr Alex Money. During the event they taught sessions which explored the applications for sustainable finance, the role that finance can play in connecting action on climate change with inclusive development pathways, as well as the concept of corporate purpose, and why this matters to financial institutions in the face of changing corporate ownership and the broad socio-environmental challenges of the 21st Century. Contributions also came from Jacques Morris who presented the latest finding from the UK Transition Plan Taskforce and Dr Ben Caldecott, P3S Academy Faculty Chair.
Dr Alex Money, said “the Masterclass took place at a critical time as COP27 commenced, we are incredibly grateful to the participants that chose to spend some of this short and important window with us to accelerate their understanding of sustainable finance”. Dr Jacob Schumacher said “hosting the Masterclass on the ground in Egypt amidst COP27 was a unique opportunity, with such a diversity of senior leaders attending it really heightened the teaching and learning experience.”
The COP27 Masterclass is part of an expanding pipeline of capacity building and training courses that the P3S Academy is developing, and more Masterclasses in other global locations over the next 12 months will be announced shortly.
