Free-Response Prompts

Warm-Up

Explain the difference between a Green Bond and a Sustainability-Linked Bond (SLB), then take a position: which design is more effective at reducing greenwashing risk and why?

Build-Up

You are advising a sovereign wealth fund in a fossil-fuel-dependent economy on building a credible sustainable finance strategy. Apply transition finance, blended finance, and CBDR to design the approach. What instruments would you sequence, and how would you address greenwashing concerns specific to a fossil-revenue context?

Intermediate

The EU sustainable finance regulatory stack (Taxonomy + SFDR + CSRD + EU GBS) is the world's most advanced. Critically evaluate whether it is sufficient to close the adaptation finance gap and redirect capital at the scale needed for the SDG financing challenge.

Advanced

CBI reports that 17% of self-labelled green bonds fail its 1.5°C-aligned screening. An industry spokesperson argues: "This proves the market is self-correcting — investors are sophisticated enough to distinguish quality from greenwashing, making mandatory EU GBS certification unnecessary." Systematically dismantle this argument.

Hard

Synthesize the three lectures (Ecological Footprint, Climate Change, Sustainable Finance) to argue: what is the most critical institutional gap connecting (a) the problem of ecological overshoot, (b) the governance of climate response, and (c) the financial mechanisms for addressing both? Use specific evidence from each lecture.