BAC6030 Contemporary Finance WRIT1 Assessment Brief 2025/26 | CMU

BAC6030 Assessment Details

Task/Assessment brief:

Background:

Recent UK policy developments continue to shape the intersection between financial markets, climate transition, and macro-financial stability. The Green Finance Strategy (2023) and the Net Zero Growth Plan established the UK’s ambition to remain a global centre for sustainable finance. In 2025, this agenda has evolved alongside tightening fiscal conditions and renewed debate on how best to support decarbonisation while maintaining competitiveness and household affordability.

The government’s Carbon Budget & Growth Delivery Plan (2025) reaffirmed legally binding climate commitments, while the launch of the Transition Finance Market Review and the establishment of a Transition Finance Council signal a shift towards financing emissions-intensive sectors that commit to credible decarbonisation pathways. At the same time, policy leaks ahead of the 2025–26 UK Budget point to potential reforms including:

Removal of 5% VAT on domestic energy and possible scaling back of green levies to ease household bills.
Exploration of EV “pay-per-mile” taxation to replace declining fuel-duty revenue.

A move away from a formal “UK Green Taxonomy” towards principles-based transition guidance.

These developments raise fundamental questions about policy consistency, investor confidence, risk pricing, and capital flows across asset classes. For financial institutions, asset managers, and regulators, the challenge is balancing short-term economic pressures with long-term climate-transition imperatives—while ensuring that financial-sector stability is not undermined by mispriced transition risks, stranded assets, or climate-driven economic shocks.

Against this backdrop, ESG frameworks, green finance instruments, and transition-finance standards remain central to the UK’s ability to attract global capital, manage systemic risks, and drive credible, sustainable growth. Required:
Critically evaluate the role of sustainable and transition-finance mechanisms in contemporary financial stability and capital markets, with specific reference to the UK's evolving 2025–26 policy environment.

In your answer:

1. Analyse the financial-market implications of recent UK policy signals (e.g., energy tax reforms, EV taxation proposals, and the shift away from a taxonomy).
2. Discuss the role of ESG and transition-finance frameworks in pricing climate risk, managing systemic financial exposures, and avoiding greenwashing or misallocation of capital.
3. Assess how sustainable-finance instruments (e.g., green bonds, sustainability-linked bonds, transition finance facilities) support risk mitigation and investor confidence.

Artificial Intelligence Models – Guidance for this assessment:

Artificial Intelligence (AI) models can be a powerful tool to support your learning. The University has provided some resources to support you in its appropriate usage:

• Library Services AI Hub
• Student Guide to AI and Assessment
• Code of Conduct for Students on the use of AI
• Cite Them Right resource on citing materials relating to AI (if permitted)

As per the academic regulations (Academic Handbook Ah1_08), in all cases you must submit work that is your own, acknowledging any part of it that has been informed by another source – including that which is AI generated. Upon submission of work, you will be asked to confirm the following statement:
I confirm that this assignment is my own work, except where I have acknowledged the use of works from other sources, including the use of any artificial intelligence (AI) tools, in accordance with what is allowable as described in the assessment brief.

Please note the following:

• AI should not be used as a substitute for your own knowledge, and you should never include any material that you do not understand and could not explain if asked.
• Not being able to explain your work when asked is likely to be a key factor when considering cases of academic misconduct related to AI.

The following information provides specific guidance for this assessment about what level of AI use is appropriate for this assessment. Remember that in all cases you must submit work that is your own, acknowledging any part of it that has been provided by another source.

Submission Details

Assessment Criteria

Learning outcomes assessed

On completion of this coursework, students will be able to:

• Critically evaluate the main concepts in sustainable finance.
• Critically evaluate how sustainable finance impacts on the financial system.

Other skills/attributes developed

This includes elements of the Cardiff Met EDGE (Ethical, Digital, Global and Entrepreneurial skills) and other attributes developed in students through the completion of the module and assessment. These will also be highlighted in the module guidance, which should be read by all students completing the module. Assessments are not just a way of auditing student knowledge. They are a process which provides additional learning and development through the preparation for and completion of the assessment.

• Ethical: use reputable data, cite sources, declare assumptions and limitations, respect client mandates.
• Digital: build reproducible models, manage time-series, automate checks, visualise risk/return.
• Global: situate portfolios within international markets, currency, policy and ESG contexts.
• Entrepreneurial: frame opportunities, test scenarios, quantify trade-offs, craft investor pitches.
• Communication: deliver concise, investor-ready writing and presentations; handle Q&A.
• Critical & Analytical: evaluate techniques (Sharpe, alpha, tracking error), justify choices, acknowledge bias. Independent & Project Management: plan workflows, troubleshoot data, meet deadlines, reflect to improve

Marking/Assessment Criteria