Sustainable Finance Intern

**Position title**: Sustainable Finance Intern

**Reports to**: Head, Asia Sustainable Finance

**Location**: Singapore

**Mission of the Asia Sustainable Finance Team**:
WWF has identified the finance sector as a key driver of global economic activity with which we must engage to successfully deliver on our long-term conservation mission. To do this, we work with key finance sector players including banks, investors, regulators, and stock exchanges, across six focus areas:

- **Regulations and Guidelines**: We provide recommendations and facilitate dialogue between regulatory authorities and financial institutions (FIs) to issue harmonized regulations and guidelines that raise the bar for sustainable finance at the national and regional level.
- ** Standards**: We help FIs understand what makes certain standards and certification schemes credible to help them ensure that their due diligence and verification processes assure robust sustainability practices.
- ** Capacity Building**: We empower FIs through capacity building on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues through industry-wide workshops and bilateral training sessions. Our trainings cover a range of sectors and thematic focus areas and help FIs to better assess and price risk, value companies, and develop new products.
- ** Research & Tools**: We conduct research, develop best practice guides, and benchmark FIs’ progress on ESG integration to ensure timely progress towards a resilient and sustainable financial system. We also help FIs to understand and implement cutting-edge tools so they can better understand, measure, and manage evolving ESG risks and opportunities.
- ** Engagement**: We help investors exert their influence and facilitate large scale, meaningful change by providing research and analysis that supports their engagement with portfolio companies over key ESG issues.
- ** Green Financial Solutions**: We work with FIs to support the development of innovative green financial solutions based on science-based criteria that create measurable environmental and social impacts alongside competitive financial returns.

In Asia, we work across seven (7) ASEAN countries - Indonesia, Malaysia, Myanmar, Philippines, Singapore, Thailand, and Vietnam - as well as in Japan and South Korea. We focus on sustainability issues related to soft commodities finance (e.g. agriculture, forestry, and seafood), in addition to cross-cutting issues such as climate and energy, and water.

**Major Functions**:
To support the Head Asia Sustainable Finance, local WWF office and Asia sustainable finance team in carrying out sustainable finance work across the finance sector in Asia, creating in house research materials, working with WWF conservation experts to develop suitable risk management tools, supporting sustainable finance team in submitting funding proposals and working on communication strategy.

**Major duties and responsibilities**:

- Assess and benchmark FIs’ extent of ESG integration, stock exchange reporting guidelines and regulatory standards
- Manage research on commodities supply chains, ESG issues and other sustainable finance related topics; design internal briefs and presentations for WWF offices
- Work with WWF conservation experts to distill insights and knowledge into tools and guidelines for the finance sector
- Prepare workshop materials - presentation slides and case studies
- Prepare concept notes and proposals on related initiatives for potential funding opportunities to support regional/global WWF Sustainable Finance Practice work

**Profile**:

- Relevant educational qualifications, Degree curriculum, in either finance, economics, sustainable development, or environment management
- A good understanding of how environmental concerns relate to material business risks and opportunities
- General knowledge of the finance sector levers for change as they relate to sustainability
- Able to prioritise and operate under tight deadlines
- Proficiency in Excel and Powerpoint - comfortable working with data
- Ability to work independently and proactively
- Adheres to WWF’s values, which are: Knowledgeable, Optimistic, Determined and Engaging