The Oxford Sustainable Finance Group hosted Emmanuel Faber, Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) and former CEO of Danone, for the University of Oxford Greening Finance Lecture in October at the Weston Library, Oxford. He delivered a compelling address on “Future Proofing Capital Markets with Sustainability Disclosures.”
The lecture celebrated Emmanuel’s recognition as the 2024 winner of the Outstanding Service category of the University of Oxford Prize for Greening Finance, established in 2023.
Selected by a judging panel chaired by our Group’s leadership, Emmanuel was recognised for his exceptional leadership in advancing sustainability in the corporate world and his pivotal role in developing global sustainability disclosure standards.
In his lecture, Emmanuel reflected on the collaborative lineage of sustainability work across business, finance, and academia, emphasising that capital markets increasingly price factors beyond today’s financial statements. He argued for a robust, comparable, and assurable language for sustainability-related risks and opportunities – one that enables investors to compare like with like and direct capital toward more resilient strategies at lower cost.
The lecture offered an optimistic vision of collective progress. ISSB standards, he noted, are the result of collaboration across regulators, standard-setters, multilateral institutions, and market participants- and their adoption will be equally collective.