Sustainable Debt Markets

Sustainable debt markets are reshaping global finance as sovereigns, corporations, municipali?ties, and multilateral institutions deploy green, social, sustainability, sustainability-linked, and transition-labeled instruments to address climate and development challenges. This course exam?ines how sustainability is embedded into debt structures; the market principles, taxonomies, and regulatory frameworks that govern these instruments; and the opportunities and limitations they present.

The course is designed for students who want a technical, practice-facing understanding of instru?ment design, pricing and investor demand, external review processes, disclosure and reporting, and integrity risks including additionality, credibility, transition integrity, and greenwashing. Students build fluency in issuer frameworks and transaction documentation, learn how to evaluate KPI/SPT ambition and verifiability, and develop the ability to critique claims made in real issuances.

Through a structured case-study approach, students will practice analyzing transactions across corporate, sovereign, municipal, and structured-finance settings. The course culminates in a final analyst report assessing a real instrument end-to-end: structure, pricing context, credibility, and decision-relevant implications for investors, issuers, and policymakers.