Launched in October, the International Sustainable Finance Centre of Excellence has been established to deliver the skills necessary for the financial services community to finance a net-zero future. The aim is for the centre to become an international hub from which the Irish-located finance community will develop its response to sustainability demands.
It will lead on research, talent development and other activities to support the design and implementation of innovative financial mechanisms to facilitate the transition to a net-zero economy in Ireland and internationally.
The new centre is one of the key outputs of the sustainable finance roadmap, which was developed by Sustainable Finance Ireland in partnership with Skillnet Ireland, and in collaboration with the United Nations Development Programme, the Department of Finance and a number of international partners.
According to the Minister for Further and Higher Education, Research, Innovation and Science, Simon Harris, sustainable finance is critical for Ireland’s future growth in financial services. Speaking at the launch of the centre he said: “This centre of excellence will help the planet, but it is essential to the future-proofing of the economy. This centre will work with customers, colleagues and communities to support their transition to a resilient, net-zero economy by 2050. The collaboration that has developed the centre is key. Those partnerships will support the sector’s future talent development needs and inspire new people to enter this relatively new area of work.”
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The new centre will help position Ireland as a world leader in sustainable finance by developing the talent, knowledge and expertise needed by businesses across all sectors, says Skillnet Ireland chief strategy officer Mark Jordan. “It is a key part of the Government’s Ireland for Finance Strategy 2025 which aims to position Ireland as a global centre of sustainable finance by 2025. Skillnet Ireland is committed to delivering initiatives that support industries to adopt sustainable practices and the new centre launch is a key step in achieving Ireland’s climate goals.”
Jordan explains that the new centre is open to any company in any sector facing challenges in relation to sustainability reporting or investment issues. “It’s going to be a one-stop shop for companies to go to,” he says. “It will address anything to do with climate-related and green finance. The centre will also sponsor research. We will see a lot of innovation going on there. It will be a sandbox for industry, a hub for collaboration around the complex challenges facing the industry in relation to sustainability. It will also be a repository or library where research carried out by other organisations around the world can be accessed.”
Collaboration will be key. “It will have different companies sharing best practice on how they have adapted to regulatory challenges and discussing how they go about product development and prototyping in the climate and green finance space,” he adds. “They will be able to see what their peers are doing in sustainable and climate finance and how they are addressing the challenges presented by the climate agenda. We also want to bring the world’s greatest subject matter experts to the centre to share their knowledge.”
The global nature of the centre will also be critically important. “It is the first time anyone has done this,” says Jordan. “It will have a lot of participants from the international investment community, asset managers, pension funds, banks and insurance companies operating in Ireland. It will be unique in bringing international companies together with the Irish financial services sector to collaborate on this vital area.”
Talent development is also high on the agenda. “One of the key challenges facing the sector is a lack of skilled talent,” says Stephen Nolan, managing director of the United Nations Development Programme Financial Centres for Sustainability (FC4S), a partnership between the world’s leading financial centres which aims to enable the exchange of experience and drive action on shared priorities to accelerate the expansion of green and sustainable finance.
“The Sustainable Finance Skillnet has already upskilled 2,500 finance professionals,” Nolan adds.
“By bringing the industry together in the centre of excellence there will be opportunities for Skillnet Ireland networks like the Sustainable Finance Skillnet to co-create talent development programmes which will meet the industry’s skills needs now and in the future,” Jordan notes.
Nolan believes the new centre has been established at a particularly opportune time. “The sustainable finance agenda is incredibly important internationally at present despite geopolitical events,” he notes. “Yes, in the short term the war in Ukraine has caused increased investment in fossil fuels but there is widespread recognition that our dependence on fossil fuels cannot continue. We are seeing tornadoes and other weather events around the world with alarming frequency and there is a growing realisation that a tipping point has come. Before the war, 40 per cent of Europe’s energy was imported from Russia. Now it’s 9 per cent. That shows what can be done. We are already seeing a surge in investment in other forms of energy production, and we need to find ways to deploy additional capital into areas like that. The new centre will help us to do that.”
Alongside Skillnet Ireland, other organisations supporting the work of the centre of excellence include AIB, Bank of Ireland, Deloitte, EirGrid, FD, Goodbody, IDA Ireland, Irish Life Investment Managers, KPMG, Maples Group, Mazars, PTSB, PwC and TD Securities.
It is planned the centre will be fully operational by mid-January 2023. “It will be more a platform than a physical centre, initially at least,” Jordan concludes. “As the roadmap develops it could be that the centre becomes a physical location where people collaborate in person.”