ESG Investing: Financial Decisions in Flux Specialization

As ESG investing continues to evolve towards a global standard, certain initiatives such as the UN’s sustainable development goals, and the Paris Agreement on climate change, have already spurred significant changes across the financial markets.
As the title of this specialization suggests, financial decisions by investors, as well as capital deployment by companies, organizations, and governments, have been shifting amid increasing attention to environmental, social, and governance-related concerns.
By the end of this specialization, students with basic knowledge of traditional financial products (e.g., stocks, bonds, exchange-traded funds, commodities) should obtain a solid background on how ESG investing principles originated, and how related governing frameworks, analytical strategies, and investment products are evolving in the financial markets, including a proliferation of various fixed-income instruments and thematic ETFs.
Moreover, you'll acquire insights into some of the benefits and drawbacks of Big Data as a complement to fundamental analysis, and how developments in data science, including machine learning, natural language processing (NLP), and sentiment analysis algorithms, may be used for actionable accountability.
You will further be able to detail why ESG investing remains a work in progress and list some anticipated developments for its future.
We look forward to you joining us!
WHAT YOU WILL LEARN
- Describe how ESG principals originated, and how governing frameworks, strategies, and investment products are evolving in the financial markets.
- Integrate ESG factors when conducting fundamental analyses and offer insights about approaches to sustainable portfolio management construction.
- Analyze ESG-focused financial products such as green bonds, social bonds, and ESG-related exchange-traded funds (ETFs).
- Examine how Big Data can complement fundamental analysis, and differentiate between different forms of deceptive business practices.