The Green Finance Team

Finance forms the foundation of our economic system, and enables all types of economic activities, with both positive and negative impacts on nature. At the same time, nature loss can result in significant financial implications, as also recently recognized by a group of 120 financial supervisors and central banks. The financial sector has, therefore, a crucial role to play in addressing the climate and biodiversity crisis. WWF globally recognizes the finance sector as a key driver for change and WWF-NL identified two key programmatic focus strategies to (i) Financing Green, and (ii) Greening in the Dutch financial sector.

The Financing Green pillar currently spans across two initiatives, the Dutch Fund for Climate and Development (DFCD) and Mobilizing More for Climate (MoMo4C). Within these initiatives WWF-NL works in consortia with financial institutions and NGOs to originate and develop Bankable Nature Solutions (BNS) with companies in the Global South and support these companies finding investments to bring their business ideas to scale.

The Greening Finance pillar aims to encourage a meaningful shift in financial flows away from nature-negative outcomes and towards nature-positive ones by promoting integration of nature into all financial decision by Dutch financial institutions.

WWF-NL aims to deliver this by encouraging leadership and best practice, as well as raising the bar through activities directed at policy and regulation. In the past years WWF-NL has established partnerships with Rabobank and Robeco to test how nature can be integrated into decision-making processes within banks and asset managers using the Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures framework as a guiding principle.

The internship

The Green Finance team at WWF-NL is looking for an intern to support the team in the proper functioning of its partnerships, programs and projects. As this position will support both the Greening Finance pillar and Financing Green pillar, you will be involved in the full spectrum of the sustainable finance value chain, entrusted with the challenge of bridging nature-related risks with nature-related opportunities.

Activities:

• Support the Pillar leads with the implementation of Financing Green strategy and Greening Finance strategy, including partnerships.
• Support the Green Finance projects and programs – such as the NatureWise incubation facility for NBS.
• Analyse the financial viability of green projects, small enterprises, and other sustainable finance instruments.
• Conduct research on emerging aspects of biodiversity finance to inform strategy development and stakeholder engagement.

Student profile

We are looking for a master’s student with a solid background in finance, financial institutions, and affinity for sustainability, with ability to perform financial modelling and other financial evaluations to assess green investment opportunities.

The internship is full-time (40 hours per week). The student must be based in the Netherlands and available to work 2-3 days per week in person at the WWF-NL office in Zeist. The student should be able to work independently and have excellent organizational, analytical and English communication skills.

What do we offer?

• An internship from February until July 2026.
• € 550,- allowance per month, based on full time work.
• An office surrounded by nature in Zeist.

Interested?

Please send your cv and motivation letter before January 3rd, 2025, to Chayanika Perera (cperera@wwf.nl) and Natascha Zwaal (nzwaal@wwf.nl). Applications will be reviewed on a rolling basis, so we encourage you to apply as soon as possible.