Episode 5 · The Decoded associate team
ESG, Climate Finance & Decarbonisation
An exploration of ESG as a risk lens, why ratings disagree, where climate money is flowing, and how decarbonisation actually happens.
Course designed by Akshat Bhaskar.
This classroom page expands on Episode 5, the opening session of our Decoded × HERizon event, recorded live with our associate team teaching before we sat down with Professor Cary Krosinsky.
Vidyanshi Mittal breaks down ESG as a risk-assessment lens rather than a strategy, using Apple as a case study, and explains why ratings rarely agree and what green hushing is. Aly Muhammad Dadwani follows the money in global climate finance, from roughly two trillion dollars in clean energy investment to the regulatory retreat in the United States and Europe. Akshara Durugkar closes with decarbonisation in practice and why financial capital decides which technologies scale. The resources below turn those threads into things you can learn from, think with, explore, or teach. Nothing here is investment advice.
START HERE · ACTIVITY
When the Ratings Disagree
Two ESG agencies look at the same company and reach opposite verdicts. You have to decide what to do with that.
Start the activityLEARN
Student-friendly explainers.
- LEARNExplainer
ESG Is a Risk Lens, Not a Strategy
What ESG actually measures, why it works best as a way of spotting financial risk, and why the ratings so often disagree.
Beginner10 min read
- LEARNExplainer
Follow the Money: Global Climate Finance
Where roughly two trillion dollars of clean energy investment came from, why falling costs did more than treaties, and what the regulatory retreat means.
Intermediate10 min read
- LEARNExplainer
Decarbonisation in Practice
Electrification, the shift to solar, wind, hydro, and nuclear, and why financial capital ultimately decides which technologies scale.
Beginner9 min read
THINK
Questions, thought experiments, and challenges.
- THINKActivity
Greenwashing, Green Hushing, or Genuine?
Sort real-sounding corporate climate statements into greenwashing, green hushing, or genuine progress.
Beginner8 min activity
- THINKChallenge
The Decoded 7-Day Follow-the-Money Challenge
Seven small daily habits for seeing how money and climate are connected in everyday life.
Beginner7-day challenge
EXPLORE
Reading lists and further resources.
TEACH
Worksheets and classroom-friendly materials.