Masters in Climate Change, Sustainable Business and Green Finance

This pre-study interactive course is designed by ICMA Centre faculty to prepare you for your learning journey at Henley if you are undertaking postgraduate study in any finance-oriented subject. Through the course, you will appreciate the purpose of finance and investment, the main types of investment and financial markets, as well as the process of valuing investments and the role of risk and return in investment performance. These are all important fundamentals in understanding the workings of financial markets and being able to apply them to real and practical problems as part of your course. We encourage you to take the course even if you have studied finance before. The course is delivered online, requires around 15 hours of study and can be completed at your own pace.

Quantitative techniques and statistics are among the main tools finance and investment professionals utilise in analysing data linked to financial markets and securities. This interactive pre-study course is designed to deliver these essential building blocks in maths and quants and prepare you for a Finance Master’s if you don’t have a finance, maths, or quants background. For those with a relevant background, it can serve as a refresher of this essential knowledge.

This pre-study interactive course is designed by Henley Business School faculty to introduce you to the world of coding in Python. According to recent employer surveys, coding is a top 5 employability skill in the new world of work. The World Economic forum includes technology design and programming in the top 10 skills of 2025. Coding is an extremely powerful skill to have going forward in all areas of business and finance. Due to the importance of coding skills in your future, you will be using coding in some of your courses depending on your choice of programme at Henley Business School. So, this pre-study course can be seen as a stepping stone in your learning journey. Even if coding is not directly utilised as a part of your programme, completing this course, earning the certificate and complementing this with some further independent learning, could set you apart in an increasingly competitive job market. Python is the most utilised programming language in the world and so the purpose of this course is for you to learn the fundamentals of Python, and how to use it to solve practical problems in your area of interest.

This pre-study interactive course is designed by Henley Business School faculty, the University of Reading Study Advice Team and the International Study and Language Institute. The course aims to prepare you for your learning journey at Henley and focuses on helping you build important study skills to succeed in your Masters and beyond. Skills such as curiosity and independent thinking, effective communication and collaboration, digital capabilities, storytelling, empathy and professional integrity are not only important in your course itself but are also sought after by employers in all areas of business. Therefore, they are instrumental in succeeding in your professional career. The learning journey of our Masters programmes is designed in a way that allows you to build such skills and this course intends to demonstrate exactly how, and therefore help you to make the most of your Masters.

The aims and objectives of the module are to give students an introduction to econometrics so that they might understand the econometric techniques used in the finance research literature. Via case studies and computer modelling exercises, students then learn how to apply these techniques to real data. Emphasis is placed on practical applications of the techniques in the global financial markets. The module aims to encourage the development of IT and data handling skills: in particular, the use of Python as the software to apply the econometric techniques to data from Eikon and Bloomberg.

In Part II, the main characteristics and risks of a range of financial markets are presented: equity, fixed income, foreign exchange, futures and commodity markets. A series of interactive workshops are used to learn about ethical investing and alternative trading systems. The aim of part II is to provide an economic framework for understanding global financial markets, financial institutions, market players and the importance of liquidity and price efficiency.

This module is core for several financial programmes. It provides a rigorous academic framework for assessing security values, interpreting changes in the price of financial instruments, managing risks, and comparing alternative market structures. Also, it provides a practical group project and trading simulation sessions, where students will gain hands-on experience with trading in alternative market structures.

The module aims to provide students with the ability:

• To present a well evidenced analysis of the effects and risks of climate change on individuals, governments, businesses, and financial institutions.
• To apply techniques of climate analytics and business analytics to help understand the complex relationship between climate change, businesses, and financial decisions.
• To understand the relevant international regulations and agreements around climate change and how these impact individuals, governments, businesses, and financial institutions.

The module places no pre-requisite of knowledge in any area of science or mathematics and is designed to be easily understood by students of any academic background. The module is ideal for students who would like to know more about the effect of climate change across individuals and institutions and potentially be part of the solution to solving these new business problems.

This module will also cover how companies can quantify the impact of their greenhouse gas emissions in the form of carbon accounting and disclosure and the role that advances in carbon pricing and carbon trading might play in a transition to a net-zero economy.

The module aims to provide students with the ability:

• To understand and explain the workings of the global energy and commodity markets and their role in the transition to a net-zero economy.
• To understand the key renewable energy technologies as well as the opportunities and challenges that arise from a transition to such technologies on a broad scale.
• To be able to apply techniques of carbon accounting to quantify the greenhouse gas emissions of a company and then discuss the role of carbon trading to offset such emissions.

The module places no pre-requisite of knowledge in any area of science or mathematics and is designed to be easily understood by students of any academic background. The module is ideal for students who would like to know more about energy finance, carbon and commodity markets and how these can be used as part of the solution to the problems of climate change.

A particular focus in this module is on green and climate change-related investments, but the module also explores the social and ethical dimensions of sustainable investment.

The aim of the module is to familiarise students with the main strategies employed in sustainable investments and the role that sustainable investment can play in addressing societal challenges such as climate change. Using real-world examples and ESG data, students will learn about the key challenges and opportunities that investors incorporating ESG criteria face. Students will also be introduced to the crucial role of financial regulation and voluntary standards/principles in the sustainable investment space.

The exposure of businesses to transition risks resulting from policy and legal changes as governments and societies adjust to lower carbon economies, will be explored.

By the end of the module, it is expected that students will be able to:

• Critically evaluate the different types of climate risks.
• Apply quantitative techniques based on climate data and climate models to measure the financial impact of weather events on banks, insurance companies and businesses.
• Apply methods to reduce and manage physical and transition risks associated with climate change.

The self-directed nature of study for this model should encourage students to be resourceful in their search for relevant literature and data, and to manage the various stages involved effectively, leading to timely submission of the finished piece.

Students will study the effects of financialization, globalisation and privatisation. They will draw upon real world experiences to examine contemporaneous case studies that cover key instances of ethical failure across a range of sectors including the financial sector.

Interdisciplinary, international and cross-sector perspectives will inform discussion of the key risk and issues. We will focus on risks that the community is exposed to, when untrammelled power is exerted by a small financial elite and their private and professional networks.

Students will also study how institutional safeguards, state interventions, governance, culture and whistleblowing, can help ensure that power is exercised responsibly, so as to protect stakeholders.

This module reviews the current state of the trading industry and identifies aims, features, regulations, and limitations of three main groups of algorithmic trading strategies: market making, trade execution and statistical arbitrage. Practical seminars are used to demonstrate how to apply trading algorithms to high-frequency data.

This module will equip the students with a basic knowledge of algorithmic and high frequency trading strategies which are commonly used in the trading industry.

You will look at how to implement sustainability objectives in a corporate environment and how governments can facilitate corporate sustainability with the right incentives and policies. This module aims to give students a thorough understanding of how sustainability goals are shaping the corporate world and how this transformative process is involving a wide range of stakeholders.