The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) is continuing to back the climate transition in UK financial services by asking the industry for feedback on linking remuneration with sustainability outcomes. The UK regulator today released the discussion paper Finance for positive sustainable change: governance, incentives and competences in regulated firms in which it asked for feedback on … Read more
Special guest Elysabeth Alfano, CEO and founder of VegTech Invest, discusses the environmental and health effects of animal agriculture. Alfano, whose firm’s Plant-based Innovation & Climate ETF was recently third-party certified as being carbon neutral without the use of credits, talks about investment opportunities and the future of alternative protein sources. Paul and Emile go … Read more
The small ESG target-date market will soon have a new entrant, one of the biggest names in the US mutual fund and retirement business — Fidelity Investments. On Friday, the company began positioning itself to compete in the sustainable target-date fund business, filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission for a new line of products, … Read more
Putnam Investments is now offering a series of sustainable target-date funds for the retirement market. The asset manager announced Friday the launch of Putnam Sustainable Retirement Funds, which will invest in actively managed sustainable and environmental, social and governance-focused exchange-traded funds managed by Putnam. Putnam Sustainable Retirement Funds will invest in ETFs across the asset classes managed … Read more
BlackRock is losing its head of sustainability policy and engagement, Paul Bodnar, who is leaving the asset manager in April for a role at the Bezos Earth Fund. Bodnar, who announced his departure on LinkedIn, will have been at BlackRock for two years. In October, Bodnar switched roles from global head of sustainable investing to … Read more
A wide gap is emerging between companies acting on sustainability and those falling behind, a study has found, but more than half of businesses say too much data is hampering their efforts. The study, from innovation consultancy Designit, is based on 1,000 online interviews with sustainability professionals with an influence on, or responsibility or accountability … Read more
Major public companies around the world have increasingly made pledges and promises to reach net zero, but barely any of them are prepared to act on that, a report Wednesday from CDP found. Among more than 18,600 businesses that last year made disclosures through Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), more than 4,000 indicated they have a … Read more
Institutional investors representing £4.5trn in assets under management are supporting a lawsuit against the board of directors at Shell filed by ClientEarth. The non-profit today filed what it calls a world-first lawsuit against directors for failing to manage the material and foreseeable risks posed to the company by climate change. The lawsuit, filed in the … Read more
The new global chair of the 30% Club has told ESG Clarity her focuses in the role will be women’s track records, increased diversity at the executive level – not just on boards – and racial equality. Hanneke Smits (pictured), CEO of BNY Mellon Investment Management, was announced this week as the global chair of … Read more
The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has formed a Stewardship Resourcing Technical Group to understand the key costs and resources involved in stewardship. Formed of representatives from asset managers, pensions firms and data providers (full list below), the group has been created in conjunction with the Thinking Ahead Institute (TAI) to explore the challenges and … Read more