The closer a company’s oil and gas extraction project is to an environmentally sensitive site, the more chance there is of an environmental incident causing that company to be criticised and thus posing a risk to its investors, RepRisk has found. Research from the ESG data company published discovered public companies within a 1km radius … Read more
With climate awareness intensifying in recent years, we have witnessed a significant investor exodus from heavy-emitting companies. The rise of ESG has been a key factor in this flight of capital, as asset managers have sought to demonstrate strong sustainability credentials. As we embark on the evolution to a greener world, there are still numerous … Read more
Morningstar Sustainalytics has named Sylviane Carot as the head of Asia Pacific ESG alliances and redistribution. Carot joined on 4 April with 19 years’ experience working in financial services. She has spent the past 13 years at MSCI where she was head of ASEAN for asset owners, buy-side and insurances clients and was in charge … Read more
In part one of this Green Dream video interview, Jenn-Hui Tan, Fidelity’s global head of stewardship and sustainable investing, discusses the firm’s stewardship priorities, the results of a new voting policy and the importance of industry-wide engagement. Watch the full video interview above and read the transcript below. NK: Hello, I’m Natalie Kenway, editor in chief … Read more
Financial advisers have “significantly increased” their focus on sustainable and responsible funds since the pandemic, according to statistics from FE fundinfo. The FE Analytics data shows that sustainable funds now account for a larger proportion of the top-25 researched funds within the Investment Association (IA) Global universe on its platform. In 2019, only 28% (seven … Read more
ETFs categorised as Article 9 are performing worse on average on most Principal Adverse Impact indicators (PAIs), which refer to disclosure requirements under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), than Article 8 ETFs, a recent study has found. They also show great misalignment with the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals than Article 8 counterparts. In … Read more
Reforms to the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS) have been welcomed by industry commentators as signalling a step towards “the type of carbon economy that we need in order to address the systemic issues of climate change”. Last week EU ministers approved a wide-ranging set of reforms phasing out allowances and paving the way for … Read more
It’s been two years since the first asset managers released their pledges around meeting net zero. In the months that followed, it seemed like the news agenda was flooded with investment management companies rushing to make commitments in line with the goals of the Paris Agreement. But how are the pledges translating two years on? … Read more
Touchstone Investments has launched a Climate Transition ETF allowing investors exposure to companies poised to prosper from the fight against the climate crisis. The actively-managed ETF will typically hold around 40-60 stocks that fall into three categories: solution providers, transition leaders and adaptation opportunities. These are companies whose growth will benefit from regulations, innovations, services, … Read more
ClientEarth, a UK-headquartered environmental law charity, and the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change, an organisation designed to raise awareness among Asia’s financial institutions about climate change, have published a guide to help tackle greenwashing. Greenwashing and how to avoid it: an introductory guide for Asia’s finance industry provides practical information to combat greenwashing including … Read more