China has grown to become the second-largest economy and second-largest stock market in the world, and is setting ambitious goals when it comes to climate. President Xi Jinping announced China’s goal to hit peak emissions before 2030 and reach carbon neutrality by 2060 at the 2020 Climate Ambition Summit. The 14th Five-Year Plan also sets … Read more
Franklin Templeton has hired James Andrus to the newly created role of vice-president of sustainability global markets. Andrus joins Franklin Templeton from the California Public Employees’ Retirement System (Calpers), where he served as the interim managing investment director for sustainable investing and led CalPERS’ sustainable investment strategy across its $443bn investment portfolio and advocated for … Read more
Nuveen has launched a real estate strategy focused on carbon reduction. The Nuveen Global Real Estate Carbon Reduction strategy invests in real estate companies that have either achieved carbon neutrality or have a target to or track record of reducing greenhouse gas emissions in a manner that is aligned with the Paris Agreement. Jay Rosenberg, … Read more
Insight Investment has teamed up with the University of Oxford to launch an annual prize of up to £50,000 for research on greening finance. The Insight Investment – University of Oxford Prize for Greening Finance, which is open for nominations, has two categories, both open to individuals and research teams. The first category is for … Read more
ESG Clarity is exploring the decarbonisation targets set by Net Zero Asset Managers’ initiative (NZAM) firms as well as talking to individual fund groups about how they are finding the journey to net zero. See also: – ESG Clarity’s Net Zero Database Here Neil Brown, head of equities at GIB Asset Management, explains the fund house’s progress on its emissions targets, and … Read more
As more and more capital flows into sustainable investing, there are two burning questions: one, does this lower the cost of capital for the underlying companies; and two, do these companies go on to affect the change investors are expecting to see (alongside financial performance)? With both these questions in mind, is sustainable investing the … Read more
Fidelity International has launched the Fidelity Global Government Bond Climate Aware Ucits ETF. The fund is a passively managed ETF that tracks the Solactive Paris Aware Global Government USD Index. The index is designed to reflect the performance of global local currency government bonds issued by investment grade countries. It also aims to exhibit a … Read more
US president Joe Biden has used his first presidential veto to reject a bill passed in the Senate that would block the Department of Labor (DOL)’s ESG rule for retirement plans. Reuters reported that in a video posted on Monday to Twitter, Biden said: “I just signed this veto because the legislation passed by the … Read more
World Water Day is an annual United Nations observance day held on 22 March that highlights the importance of fresh water. The day is used to advocate for the sustainability management of freshwater resources. The Regnan Sustainable Water and Waste Fund invests throughout the water supply chain and increases the access people have to freshwater, … Read more
Asset managers claim to have voting policies on ESG issues, but more than a third of them do not provide specific voting commitments, according to a report from ShareAction’s Point of No Returns series. Among the 77 asset managers interviewed worldwide, 14 firms did not disclose any climate-related voting commitments while a further 13 have … Read more