This guide explores ways to get started in and transition into sustainable finance careers. It focuses on how professionals can build foundational knowledge, apply transferable skills, and take opportunities to create impact. Through expert insights it highlights strategies to navigate evolving roles and align finance with real sustainability outcomes.

The article interprets Copernicus’s Global Climate Highlights 2025 as a shift from episodic extremes to a structurally warmer, more volatile baseline. It argues that persistent temperature exceedances, ocean heat, cryosphere decline, and overlapping hazards demand a move from climate risk awareness to disciplined adaptation and continuity planning.

The Climate Finance Vulnerability Index (CliF-VI) is a data-driven global tool that assesses nations’ climate risk alongside their financial capacity to respond, helping guide adaptation financing. It combines climate, financial and governance indicators in an interactive dashboard to inform equitable allocation of climate adaptation funds.

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) is a United States government scientific agency offering weather, climate, ocean, and coastal data, forecasts and warnings. It supports environmental monitoring, severe weather preparedness, marine resource management and global observation services.

The Global Facility for Disaster Reduction and Recovery (GFDRR) is a World Bank-managed, multi-donor partnership that provides grants, technical assistance and tools to help low- and middle-income countries understand, manage and reduce disaster and climate risks. It supports resilience planning, risk analytics and disaster risk management integration into development.

Columbia University is a leading research university based in New York City, offering undergraduate, postgraduate and professional education across arts, sciences, engineering, business and medicine.

Through global research initiatives, public policy engagement and interdisciplinary scholarship, Columbia University advances innovation, academic excellence and societal impact, and community partnerships worldwide for society.

Fachhochschule Potsdam University of Applied Sciences (FHP) is a German university offering practice-oriented degree programmes in design, civil engineering, social sciences and information sciences. Based in Potsdam, FHP combines applied research, knowledge transfer and international collaboration, supporting innovation, urban development and digital transformation through teaching, research projects and industry partnerships.

Wageningen University & Research (WUR) is a leading Dutch academic institution focused on sustainable food systems, climate change, biodiversity, agriculture and environmental science.

It combines university education with applied and fundamental research to address global challenges in nutrition, health, water and circular bioeconomy. WUR partners with industry and governments worldwide.