The Environmental & Social Risk Analysis (ESRA) online course provides in-depth and personalised training. Tutors engage with participants online on a daily basis, providing guidance and facilitating debates. As a participant, you will be involved in a range of activities, from simulating implementation of environmental and social policies and guidelines and analysing case studies, to carrying out exercises based on your own clients’ environmental and social impacts.
Courses in 2025
Date | Language | Tutor |
10 – 28 March | English | Melissa Makwarimba |
24 March – 11 April | English | Aneta Wisniewska |
5 – 23 May | English | Melissa Makwarimba |
2 – 20 June | Spanish | Leandro Labbé |
23 June – 11 July | English | Melissa Makwarimba |
8 – 26 September | English | Khaled Ezzeldin |
15 September – 3 October | Spanish | Gracia Barahona |
6 – 24 October | French | Ilyès Abdeljaouad |
13 – 31 October | English | Aneta Wisniewska |
20 October – 7 November | Spanish | Gracia Barahona |
Target audience
Risk managers and analysts in commercial, corporate, investment and retail banking in or dealing with developing countries and emerging markets.
A limited number of places are also available for representatives from relevant stakeholder audiences including: supervisory/regulatory bodies, banking associations, government agencies, academic institutions, NGOs and civil society organisations involved in finance and sustainability issues.
In order to keep the high quality of our personalized course, the maximum number of participants per course is 24.
Please note that places for non-financial institution representatives are limited. Courses will not address how to financially analyse or how to set up a business plan for an environmental/socially oriented project in search of funding. The courses teach participants how to include environmental and social variables in the traditional analysis made by financial analysts when making lending and/or investment decisions, whatever the nature of the project.
Objectives & content
During the course participants will learn how to:
- Recognise environmental and social risks derived from your clients’ activities.
- Analyse the environment in which your clients operate to detect the environmental and social risks involved in their activities.
- Identify, offset and evaluate environmental and social risks taken by your clients.
- Improve your current risk management procedures.
- Institutionalise environmental risk analysis in your operations.
- Identify and understand market opportunities resulting from environmental and social risk analysis.
- Achieve a competitive advantage through risk reduction and value creation.
Each course is made up of five consecutive modules:
- Introduction to Sustainable Finance
- Identification of Environmental and Social Risks
- Categorization
- Evaluation of Environmental and Social Risks
- Administration of Environmental and Social Risks
Course contents and materials can only be accessed by participants. The course modules cannot be disaggregated.
Access the course programme.
Duration and time commitment
Three weeks for two hours per day on average, Monday to Friday.
The timetable is flexible, participants can set their own study times.
Costs
Participant Profile | Fee |
Representatives of medium-sized and large financial institutions (non-UNEPFI-Members)* | 1200 USD |
Representatives of small financial institutions (non-UNEPFI-Members)* | 1030 USD |
Representatives of UNEP FI members (including from headquarters & from subsidiaries that pay the annual UNEP FI Membership fee) | 780 USD |
*Please note that course fees serve exclusively to cover the costs of running the course and all payments for the ESRA courses are final and no refund will be given.
*5% group discounts (3 or more people from the same Financial Institution in the same course edition).
Participants who cancel their participation in a course once it has started and wish to be placed in a future edition will receive as a courtesy a 10% discount on the tuition for that future course. The course is highly customized, and these late cancellations create costs for the organizers and deny the position in the course to others who were turned away.
Applications
All applications should be submitted via our online form at least one week prior to the course you wish to participate in. Please consult our FAQs concerning applications.
Online registration: English | Spanish | French
Please note that participants need to have a very good command of the language of the course they will be taking.
Testimonials
Overall, over 190 ESRA online courses have taken place in English, French, Chinese and Spanish with over 6,000 participants from 128 countries since 2006. Read participants’ testimonials below, or access the ESRA survey result, to find out more about their experience.
View testimonials here
Training partners
The ESRA online course is a product of UNEP FI, the Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit (GIZ) GmbH, and the INCAE Business School, with the support of the Ecobanking Project.
Initially developed in Spanish in 2006 by the UNEP FI Latin American Regional Task Force, with the support of Bank of America, the English-language edition of the course was produced in 2007 thanks to the support of FMO. The French edition of the course was produced in 2010 thanks to the support of DEG – Deutsche Investitions-und Entwicklungsgesellschaft mbH (“DEG”), Promotion et Participation pour la Coopération économique (Proparco) and the Agence Française de Développement (AFD).
The course material has been updated in 2020/2021 with the support of the Sustainability Academy, an initiative of the eco.business Fund Development Facility and CAF – Latin American Development Bank.
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In-person workshops
UNEP FI along with partners offers tailored in-person workshops on climate change for the financial sector. The on-demand sessions are designed to accommodate between 25 and 30 people, for a half or full day. In general, participation is free of charge as our workshops are usually supported and sponsored by local partners.
Please contact us for in-person workshop requests.