Session as part of the EUI Climate Week 2025.
As sustainable finance moves from the margins to the mainstream, a key challenge remains: do we truly understand it? While financial markets adapt to green taxonomies, ESG disclosures, and climate risk assessments, gaps in sustainable finance literacy persist—even among professionals, regulators, and policymakers. Without a solid grasp of its tools, risks, and incentives, well-intended policies may misfire, and financial markets risk falling short on sustainability impact.
This event will examine the tensions in sustainable finance literacy:
- Can education counteract greenwashing, or does it risk reinforcing market biases?
- How should financial education evolve to balance environmental ambition with economic realism?
- Should central bankers, banking supervisors, and regulators take a greater role—and if so, how?
Amid efforts to simplify (at best) or cut back (at worse) EU sustainable finance regulation, this event will explore critical knowledge gaps that could shape—or shake—the future of sustainable finance. As regulatory frameworks tighten and institutions struggle to adapt, understanding sustainable finance is no longer just an academic concern—it is a policy and market imperative.
Chair: Pierre Schlosser, Deputy Director, Florence School of Banking and Finance, EUI
Speakers:
- Thorsten Beck, Director, Florence School of Banking and Finance, EUI
- Lea Reitmeier, Policy Analyst (Sustainable Finance), LSE
- Eliana Canavesio, Research Associate, Florence School of Banking and Finance, EUI
- Giorgio Falchi, Research Associate, Florence School of Banking and Finance, EUI
Participation in this event is by invitation only and all deliberations will take place under the Chatham House rule (no views or positions may be attributed publicly to any participant).
More information and the full programme of the EUI Climate Week 2025 can be found here.