09
Mar
2023
Greenwashing and competence risks across global green financial centres
with Prof. Dr. Kim Schumacher (Institute for Asian and Oceanian Studies, Kyushu University)
Hybrid event
Luxembourg Institute of Socio-Economic Research (LISER)
Maison des Sciences Humaines
11, Porte des Sciences
L-4366 Esch-sur-Alzette / Belval
Salle de conférence (1st floor)
02:00 pm
04:00 pm
For inquiries:
seminars@liser.lu

Abstract

The rise of sustainable finance, ESG investment, and sustainability reporting, has gradually led to a growing disconnect between the numerous positive sustainable finance and ESG-related claims of financial centres and the structures and capacities dedicated to assuring a genuine and credible scaling of their green finance ecosystems. These discrepancies can easily result in greenwashing, which pertains to false or misleading information, either intentionally or inadvertently, regarding the environmental or sustainability attributes of a product, asset and activity, which can have consequences on the assessment of financial and non-financial materiality. Competence greenwashing is the professional ESG skills-related equivalent that relates to the practice of intentional or negligent misrepresentation of knowledge, skills, competences, or expertise relating to sustainability or ESG-related activities. However, greenwashing and its subvariants like “competence greenwashing” do not occur in a contextual vacuum but are strongly linked to the increasing appeal of sustainable finance, ESG investing, and the strong green financial centre growth they are supporting. Therefore, this presentation will explore the risks of greenwashing and subject matter expertise-related competence greenwashing in the areas of sustainable finance and ESG-related activity scaling efforts of financial centres.

Biography

Prof. Dr. Schumacher is an Associate Professor in Sustainable Finance and ESG at Kyushu University (Japan). He is also a Visiting Lecturer at the Tokyo Institute of Technology (Japan). In addition, he is an Honorary Research Associate at the University of Oxford (UK). His research focuses on ESG data and impact metrics, sustainability reporting, greenwashing, green bonds, natural capital, nature-based carbon offsets, biodiversity and ecosystem services, renewable energy project development, and TCFD/TNFD disclosures.

Past work includes work as a Lecturer and Senior Research Fellow in Sustainable Finance and ESG at the Tokyo Institute of Technology, as a consultant for the Luxembourg Ministry of the Environment, Climate and Sustainable Development, and as a postdoctoral researcher in sustainable finance at the University of Oxford. He also had adjunct lecturer positions at the University of Luxembourg, United Nations University (Tokyo, Japan) and Audencia Business School (France).

In terms of organizational outreach activities and society memberships, he is a member of the GRI Global Sustainability Standards Board (GSSB). In addition, he is also a Chartered Environmentalist (CEnv) and sits on the ISO Technical Committees on Sustainable Finance (TC 322) and Environmental Management (TC 207). In 2022, he was nominated as a Lead Author for the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) Nexus Assessment Report.

He holds a PhD degree in Environmental Science from the University of Tokyo (2017) and Master’s Degree in Environmental Law from the University of California, Berkeley (2012).

https://q-aos.kyushu-u.ac.jp/en/staff/3129/

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