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AEES

AEES Executive Certificate in Sustainable finance and climate

Judge a financing, a climate risk and reporting without greenwashing. This AEES certification attests sustainable finance and climate.

  • AssessmentProfessional assessment
  • Attempts2
  • PreparationIncluded
  • France
  • Canada
Description

Sustainable finance and climate

A vague familiarity with “Sustainable finance and climate” is no longer enough. This belongs with Executive finance. You judge a financial call, a deal, a treasury or a more durable finance. People are hired to decide, not just to name the topic. This AEES certification is for professionals, managers and leaders who want to judge climate financing, read a transition risk and report without greenwashing. No diploma is required. What is required is a working command of written French, and the will to show the subject on a real file, in a company, a public body or a partner organisation.

You are not joining a long degree. You take “Sustainable finance and climate” seriously enough to use it, and seriously enough for someone else to read it on a file. Everything happens online, around a job you already have. You prepare if you need to, then you sit a professional assessment. The AEES Executive Certificate, if it is issued, is proof in your name, and it can be checked. It holds in a CV, a move or a cooperation. It is a short specialisation, issued by a higher-education institution. You see at once what you are buying: a targeted title, not a course catalogue.

Afterwards you can carry “Sustainable finance and climate” into a team, a file or a new responsibility, and explain your choices to a manager, a funder or a partner institution. Others will see that you can judge climate financing, read a transition risk and report without greenwashing, including outside your own organisation. If you succeed, AEES issues an AEES Executive Certificate in your name, with a unique serial number that can be checked in the public register. The award stays in your workspace. It shows a professional judgement you have demonstrated, useful for a CV, a new post or work in common.

Skills

What this certificate attests

The capabilities the assessment attests if you pass.

  • Judge climate financing
  • Read a transition risk
  • Report without greenwashing
  • Require a defensible figure
  • Say what is true
  • Refuse a sentence
ESCO classification — European Skills, Competences, Qualifications and Occupations

ESCO, the European skills vocabulary

This is the European Commission’s classification of skills, competences, qualifications and occupations. This certificate is linked to it through the skills below. Each link opens the official record.

Knowledge & research

Related scientific readings

Scientific readings related to this certificate.

Preparation included

To prepare for the assessment

After purchase, a preparatory course is available: 6 written modules, without an instructor, at your own pace. You are not required to follow it before opening the assessment. Each module sets out the notions, a commented case, the points to keep and a FAQ. It covers Climate risk, Transition, Financing and Data.

When you are ready, you enter the assessment: a file already open, incomplete facts, conflicting views. You move through successive decisions. This is not a full taught programme with pedagogical supervision.

Structured written course

Notions, objectives and concrete examples, organised progressively.

Applied case

A commented professional situation to anchor the theory.

FAQ and preparation

Frequent doubts, then questions to go further on your own.

  1. Module 1. Climate Risk: What Breaks an Asset or a Value Chain Climate risk is not abstract. It is the specific point where a conveyor belt halts, where a substation trips, where a contract clause forces a margin call, or where floodwater shuts a plant for six weeks. In finance and corporate practice, climate risk becomes real when it interrupts cash flows, erodes collateral value, raises the cost of capital, or blocks a market. This module focuses on tracing that line of causality with enough precision to inform a decision you can sign. You will map hazards to exposure and vulnerability, then translate that map into financial channels you already know: credit, market, operational, legal, and liquidity risk. You will see how physical and transition risks interact, and where small changes in climate or policy can trigger non-linear effects in a value chain. The aim is not a perfect forecast. It is a defensible figure, a clear narrative, and a protection you can negotiate now.
  2. Module 2: Transition Transition is not a slogan. It is a sequence of decisions under constraint. Physical limits, available technology, regulatory deadlines, customer behavior, and capital structure define what you can do and when you can do it. Your role is to turn a general direction into a set of steps that hold against scrutiny. A credible plan starts from a precise baseline and a small number of scenarios. It ranks actions by abatement per euro, feasibility, and timing. It sets trigger conditions, budgets buffers for execution risk, and discloses what will not be done because it is uneconomic or not yet possible. That clarity protects value and avoids greenwashing.
  3. Module 3/6, Financing: Choose an instrument that holds, not a label This module focuses on financing choices for climate-related projects and transitions. You will learn to translate a business need into a financing instrument that can bear legal, financial, and climate scrutiny. We keep the focus on enforceability, cash flow resilience, and measurable outcomes. Labels can guide the market, but they do not repay debt, de-risk a project, or cut emissions on their own. Your job is to choose structures that hold under stress, stand up to due diligence, and fit the asset, the sponsor, and the transition plan. If the climate claim rests on a label rather than on covenants, data, and incentives, it is not robust.
  4. Module 4/6 - Data: From estimate to defensible figure in sustainable finance and climate In sustainable finance, numbers move capital only if they stand up to scrutiny. Targets, covenants, and risk appetites rest on figures whose meaning depends on definitions, boundaries, sources, and methods. A defensible figure is one that a competent reviewer can trace, replicate, and challenge without finding avoidable error or unjustified judgment. This module shows you how to produce and demand that level of quality. Comfortable estimates are common. They come from quick proxies, stale emission factors, or narrow system boundaries that understate reality. They may be fast and easy to communicate, but they fail when a transaction hinges on them, when a regulator or auditor asks for evidence, or when a board takes a decision with real capital at risk. Your role is to raise the standard: specify the question, select the right framework, and document assumptions that reduce room for error.
  5. Module 5, Reporting: Say what is true, including what is missing Reporting is the point where climate ambition meets accountability. Investors, supervisors, clients, and colleagues need a coherent account of governance, strategy, risks, metrics, and targets. Your role is not to decorate a brochure. Your role is to help a reader take decisions with a clear view of what is known, what is estimated, and where uncertainty is material. This module focuses on practical reporting for a financial institution or a corporate that engages the financial system. You will connect data and risk analysis to a narrative structured around recognized frameworks. You will also learn to expose gaps without weakening your message: it is better to say what is missing than to hide it and lose credibility later.
  6. Module 6: Greenwashing in Sustainable Finance Greenwashing is the gap between what is claimed and what is actually supported by evidence. In sustainable finance, it undermines credibility, confuses clients and supervisors, and weakens climate outcomes. You will encounter it in product names, press releases, pitch decks, investor fact sheets, ESG ratings, and transition plans. The consequence is not just reputational. It can trigger regulatory scrutiny, client complaints, lost mandates, and internal rework. This module is practical. You will learn to structure a review, test claims against the underlying file, and rewrite language so that it is clear, true, specific, and proportionate to the data. You will also learn when to say no. A clean refusal, explained with an alternative formulation, is often the fastest path to a compliant, credible message. Your standard is professional discipline: every statement must be anchored in a defensible figure or verifiable fact, with context that prevents misunderstanding.