Climate Change Economics and Governance Training Course

Duration 5 days 10 modules · 33 contact hours
Level Intermediate Certificate on completion
Who attends Sustainability Managers, Climate Finance Specialists and others
Fee from USD 1,100 KSh 95,000 for Kenyan organisations
Where 52 cities + online See dates by city
Next start 7 Nov 2026 Course code SD-CFCM-003

Before you join: Participants should have working experience in finance, sustainability, policy, risk, investment, energy, infrastructure or a related professional function.

Dates & prices

Two start dates a month in every city, and live online on weekdays or weekends. Fees are per participant; classroom fees include tuition, materials, lunch and refreshments, and the certificate.

Suggest a date or city

Showing the next six months. Later dates, other cities and private deliveries for your team are available on request.

Course overview

Climate decisions now affect capital allocation, public budgets, lending, procurement, infrastructure planning and corporate reporting. Professionals must assess the economic case for emissions reduction and resilience, understand carbon-pricing rules, identify credible finance sources, and establish governance that withstands regulatory and investor scrutiny. Weak assumptions, poor emissions data, unclear decision rights and low-integrity carbon-credit purchases can create financial loss, reporting errors and reputational exposure.

This five-day course examines the economics and governance of climate action through climate finance and carbon markets. Participants work with marginal abatement cost curves, social cost of carbon assumptions, discounted cash flow methods, shadow carbon pricing and climate-risk scenarios. They examine public policy tools including carbon taxes, emissions trading systems, subsidies, border carbon adjustments and Article 6 mechanisms. The course also addresses climate-finance instruments, transition finance, green bonds, blended finance, IFRS S2 reporting, board oversight and internal controls.

Instruction combines short technical briefings with cases drawn from public infrastructure, banking, energy, manufacturing and development finance. Participants analyse investment choices, assess carbon-credit quality, frame climate-risk controls and prepare decision materials for senior stakeholders. Each participant leaves with a practical climate finance and governance toolkit, including templates for investment appraisal, carbon-market due diligence, climate-risk registers and an implementation plan for their own role.

The course is suited to professionals who already work with finance, policy, sustainability, risk, investment or governance and need stronger command of the economic and institutional choices behind climate action. It is delivered instructor-led in a classroom in 50+ cities or live online, with five training days running from 08:30 to 16:30 and approximately 6.5 contact hours per day. Participants receive a certificate of completion.

What you will be able to do

  • Evaluate mitigation investments using marginal abatement cost curves, NPV and shadow carbon prices
  • Interpret climate-policy instruments including carbon taxes, emissions trading systems and Article 6 rules
  • Build climate-finance structures using grants, concessional debt, guarantees and green bonds
  • Assess carbon-credit quality against Article 6 controls and ICVCM Core Carbon Principles
  • Apply GHG Protocol boundary, baseline and data-quality methods to climate decisions
  • Develop climate-governance arrangements covering board oversight, controls and accountable decision rights
  • Translate climate scenarios into financial risks, investment assumptions and monitoring indicators
  • Prepare a climate finance and governance action plan for a defined business or public-sector context

Benefits of attending

For you

  • Produce credible climate investment cases for management, funders or public decision-makers
  • Evaluate carbon-credit proposals before procurement, claims approval or retirement
  • Interpret IFRS S2 and governance requirements with greater confidence
  • Contribute informed analysis to carbon-pricing and transition-finance decisions
  • Build a role-specific 90-day climate finance and governance action plan

For your organisation

  • Improve capital allocation between emissions reduction, resilience and carbon-credit expenditure
  • Strengthen climate governance, reporting evidence and internal control arrangements
  • Reduce exposure to low-integrity carbon credits and unsupported environmental claims
  • Create clearer links between climate targets, budgets, project pipelines and decision rights
  • Improve preparedness for carbon pricing, disclosure rules and investor due diligence

Course modules

10 modules over 5 days

Participants can explain the economic rationale for climate action and test key policy assumptions.

  • Climate externalities, public goods and discounting in policy appraisal
  • Marginal abatement cost curves compared with sectoral transition pathways
  • Social cost of carbon assumptions and sensitivity analysis
  • Carbon budgets linked to temperature goals and emissions trajectories
  • Distributional incidence of carbon pricing and compensatory measures
  • Market failures affecting adaptation finance and resilience investment

Participants can assess climate-policy instruments and assign institutional responsibilities for implementation.

  • Paris Agreement architecture: NDCs, transparency framework, stocktake and Article 6
  • National climate laws, regulators and ministerial accountability arrangements
  • Policy instrument selection using efficiency, equity and administrative feasibility
  • Regulatory impact assessment for carbon taxes, standards and subsidies
  • Fiscal policy interactions: revenue recycling, exemptions and border adjustments
  • Governance roles for ministries, central banks and financial supervisors

Participants can evaluate emissions data quality and establish suitable baselines for finance and governance decisions.

  • GHG Protocol scopes and organisational boundary choices for decision-making
  • Activity data, emission factors and uncertainty ranges in inventories
  • Scope 3 screening using spend-based, average-data and supplier-specific methods
  • Financed emissions measurement using PCAF attribution and data-quality scores
  • Baseline selection, recalculation policies and audit trails for targets
  • Materiality assessment distinguishing operational, value-chain and financed emissions

Participants can compare mitigation options using financial appraisal and emissions-reduction criteria.

  • Abatement cost estimation from capital, operating and fuel-switching assumptions
  • Marginal abatement cost curve construction and limitations
  • Net present value, internal rate of return and payback compared
  • Shadow carbon prices incorporated into capital expenditure appraisal
  • Scenario analysis for electricity prices, demand and policy changes
  • Prioritisation matrices balancing emissions, cost, feasibility and strategic value

Participants can select and assess financing structures for mitigation and adaptation projects.

  • Climate-finance instruments: grants, concessional debt, guarantees and blended structures
  • Project bankability assessed through cash flows, contracts and risk allocation
  • Green bond frameworks, use-of-proceeds controls and post-issuance reporting
  • Transition finance criteria for high-emitting assets and credible pathways
  • Adaptation project appraisal using avoided-loss estimates and resilience benefits
  • Climate budget tagging and public investment management integration

Participants can establish climate oversight, risk management and reporting controls for decision-makers.

  • Board oversight structures for climate strategy, risk appetite and remuneration
  • IFRS S2 disclosures: governance, strategy, risk management, metrics and targets
  • TCFD-style scenario analysis translated into financial planning assumptions
  • Physical and transition risk registers with owners, controls and indicators
  • Three-lines model applied to climate risk assurance responsibilities
  • Internal controls over emissions data and sustainability reporting evidence

Participants can compare carbon-pricing mechanisms and assess their organisational implications.

  • Carbon tax design: tax base, rate path, coverage and administration
  • Emissions trading systems: cap setting, allocation, auctions and compliance
  • Allowance price drivers, market stability reserves and banking rules
  • Border carbon adjustment mechanisms and embedded-emissions calculation issues
  • Voluntary internal carbon fees differentiated from external compliance prices
  • Equity safeguards for households, workers and trade-exposed industries

Participants can assess carbon-market transactions, integrity risks and governance controls.

  • Article 6.2 cooperative approaches, authorisations and corresponding adjustments
  • Article 6.4 mechanism governance, methodologies and supervisory body functions
  • Host-country approval, registry controls and transfer documentation
  • Integrity risks: double counting, non-additionality, reversal and leakage
  • ICVCM Core Carbon Principles applied to credit-quality assessment
  • Carbon-credit procurement mandates, approval gates and claims controls

Participants can assess climate risks and results evidence within projects, assets and portfolios.

  • Physical risk assessment using hazard, exposure, vulnerability and adaptive capacity
  • Climate scenario narratives linked to asset-level financial variables
  • Stress testing credit portfolios under transition and physical risk shocks
  • Due diligence questions for renewable energy, resilience and nature-related projects
  • Blended-finance term sheets allocating political, currency and performance risks
  • Monitoring indicators for mitigation outcomes, adaptation results and safeguards

Participants can convert course methods into an accountable climate finance and governance plan.

  • Climate governance operating model defining mandates, decisions and escalation routes
  • Policy-to-project pipeline mapped through milestones, dependencies and approvals
  • Decision memos presenting economics, risks, distributional effects and recommendations
  • Stakeholder engagement plans for regulators, communities, investors and suppliers
  • Implementation scorecards combining emissions, finance, risk and integrity indicators
  • 90-day action plan with accountable owners and review dates

Exercises and examples are adapted to each cohort's sectors and roles.

What you take back to work

  1. Climate investment appraisal template
  2. Marginal abatement cost curve model
  3. Carbon-credit due diligence checklist
  4. Climate governance operating model
  5. Climate risk and controls register
  6. 90-day implementation action plan

Who should attend

  • Sustainability Managers — need defensible investment cases, reporting controls and transition plans
  • Climate Finance Specialists — structure and assess funding for mitigation and resilience projects
  • Public Policy Officials — design climate instruments, budgets and institutional accountability arrangements
  • Risk and Compliance Managers — incorporate climate risks into governance, controls and assurance processes
  • Banking and Investment Professionals — assess climate risks, financed emissions and transition finance proposals
  • Energy and Infrastructure Project Managers — appraise low-carbon projects, funding terms and carbon-market options

Skills and tools covered

Climate investment appraisalCarbon market governanceClimate finance structuringEmissions data assuranceClimate risk analysisPolicy instrument design

Tools and standards

GHG Protocol, IFRS S2, Paris Agreement Article 6, ICVCM Core Carbon Principles

How the course runs

Training methodology

The course uses short instructor briefings to establish economic concepts, policy rules and governance standards. Participants then apply methods through facilitated case work involving infrastructure investments, financed emissions, carbon-credit procurement and public-policy choices. Small-group exercises examine marginal abatement cost curves, climate-finance term sheets, risk registers and disclosure evidence. A carbon-market decision simulation tests approval controls and integrity checks. Guided application planning helps participants adapt the methods to a current project, portfolio, policy or reporting responsibility.

Requirements and prerequisites

Participants should have working experience in finance, sustainability, policy, risk, investment, energy, infrastructure or a related professional function. They should be comfortable reading budgets, project proposals, financial tables and basic emissions information. Familiarity with climate terminology, such as net zero, Scope 1, Scope 2 and Scope 3, is helpful but not essential. The course does not require advanced economics, econometrics, carbon-credit trading experience, programming skills or prior knowledge of international climate negotiations. Participants should bring a current project, policy question or investment decision to apply during the course.

A typical training day

08:30 – 10:30First session
10:30 – 10:45Refreshment break
10:45 – 12:30Second session
12:30 – 13:30Lunch and networking
13:30 – 15:00Third session
15:00 – 15:15Refreshment break
15:15 – 16:30Workshop and daily review

Live online deliveries follow the same structure in East Africa Time, with shorter screen blocks and longer breaks.

What the fee includes

  • Instruction by a practitioner facilitator
  • Full course workbook and materials
  • Exercise files, templates and case studies
  • Refreshments and lunch on classroom deliveries
  • Certificate of completion
  • Post-course application plan

Frequently asked questions

Participants need professional familiarity with budgets, projects, policy, risk, sustainability or investment decisions. Advanced economics, carbon trading experience and technical emissions-accounting expertise are not required.

Bring a current climate-related investment, policy proposal, reporting issue or project pipeline where possible. A laptop is useful for online delivery and for reviewing course materials, but no specialist software is required.

It is designed for sustainability, finance, policy, risk, compliance, banking, investment, energy and infrastructure professionals. It is particularly useful for people who must justify climate spending or govern climate-related decisions.

Carbon accounting courses focus primarily on calculating and reporting emissions, while ESG reporting courses focus on disclosure requirements. This course connects emissions data to economics, finance structures, public policy, carbon markets and governance decisions.

Participants can use the appraisal template to compare mitigation projects, the due diligence checklist to assess carbon credits, and the governance model to clarify approvals. The final action plan identifies practical next steps, owners and review dates.

The course runs for five instructor-led days from 08:30 to 16:30, with approximately 6.5 contact hours daily. Time is divided among economics, policy, emissions data, finance, governance, carbon markets, case analysis and implementation planning.

Questions about this course?

Ask about dates, fees, group bookings or running it for your team. Our training team replies by email.

Ask on WhatsApp info@skillsetdevelopment.com

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