Australia Awards Short Course on Sustainable Finance in Indonesia: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities
Indonesian delegation on Day 3 of the course in Sydney, alongside course co-leaders Alison Atherton and Gordon Noble, Professor Stuart White, Director of the Institute for Sustainable Futures, and a representative from the Consulate-General of the Republic of Indonesia.
The world needs to invest US$4.5 trillion a year by the early 2030s to reach net zero by 2050, and developing countries face an even greater annual shortfall of around US$4 trillion in investments for Sustainable Development goals. The Australian Government is committed to supporting the Indo-Pacific tackle climate change and helping build capacity, prosperity and resilience in the region – the Australia Awards Scholarships are one of these mechanisms.
Sharing Australia’s sustainable finance approach and learning from our peers in Indonesia
In October 2024, the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures delivered “Sustainable Finance in Indonesia: Transforming Challenges into Opportunities”, a prestigious Australia Awards Short Course funded by Australia’s Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade. The delegation included 24 Indonesian executives and mid-level managers selected from across the Indonesian Government and state-owned enterprises. Delegates came from organisations such as Otoritas Jasa Keuangan (OKJ), Indonesia’s financial services authority, the Indonesian Stock Exchange, various Ministries covering investment, forestry planning and environmental governance, universities, state-owned energy enterprises and banks and the ISF team was in turn, lucky to learn from their vast experience and the Indonesian context.
Over the course of two weeks, through a combination of content, guest speakers and site visits, participants connected with key Australian figures and organisations and gained insights into the sustainable finance landscape in Australia. With 10 site visits, 17 external speakers and 11 ISF speakers, the delegation engaged with the breadth and diversity of Australia’s sustainable finance system and climate expertise – financial regulators including APRA and RBA, state treasuries, Federal government departments, the CEFC, superannuation funds, insurers, ESG ratings providers like S&P, some of Australia’s largest banks like Westpac and NAB, leading experts in responsible investment and impact investing such as the UN Principles for Responsible Investment, Australian Sustainable Finance Institute and the Responsible Investment Association Australasia.
Indonesian delegation on their first day in Australia, pictured outside the UTS Business School, Dr Chau Chak Wing Building.
"Attending the short course on sustainable finance at the UTS was a transformative experience that deepened my understanding of integrating sustainability into financial systems. The knowledge and insights gained will greatly enhance our efforts at the Indonesia Stock Exchange to enable impactful, sustainable investment practices in Indonesia." says M Rizky Zein, Indonesia Stock Exchange.
Capacity building in Australia and beyond
“One of the key insights from the program is that transition to net zero emissions requires capacity building across an organisation,” says Gordon Noble, a Research Director at the UTS Institute for Sustainable Futures (ISF) and course co-facilitator.
The transition to net zero and mandatory climate-related financial reporting have been key drivers in the growing demand for sustainable finance skills and literacy. ISF and CSIRO’s 2022 report, Advancing Climate Skills in the Australian Financial System, undertook a nationwide survey of the Australian financial system and identified crucial skills gaps. More than three-quarters (77%) of those surveyed said climate skills are in moderate to high demand in their organisation, yet 39% of respondents said demand was outstripping supply.
At a global level, LinkedIn has examined green finance skills. On the one hand, compared to other industries, finance lags behind in green skills, with only 6.8% (one in 15 finance workers) having green skills. On the other hand, finance is one of the industries with the fastest growth in hiring for green jobs. The share of hires in green jobs in finance increased 17% from 2021 to 2022.
Beyond the Australia Awards course, ISF is continuing to build skills, knowledge and capacity for a fast-changing finance and investment landscape. ISF researchers and Metrics credit Partners have developed two self-paced online manuals that cover key concepts, including ESG, materiality and fiduciary duty, climate science, and climate-related financial risk and opportunity. The self-paced online modules ‘Responsible Investment Foundations’ and ‘Climate Risk and Investment’ are available here.
The Indonesian delegation outside the Department of Treasury and Finance (DTF) in Melbourne, alongside course co-leaders Alison and Gordon, and various staff from DFT and the Treasury Corporation of Victoria (TCV), including Chris Barrett, Secretary of the Department of Treasury and Finance and Michael Larkin, CEO and Managing Director of TCV.
