Industry bodies

The advent of clean steel means greater scrutiny of iron, steel’s key building block. Standalone iron production (in the form of Hot Briquetted Iron which is already globally traded) is projected to increase amidst rising potential for green iron exports, as well as growing appetite from electric arc furnaces (mini-mills) and end-use customers further downstream who are looking to directly support high-impact interventions in the steel supply chain.

For a cleaner iron market to scale, a high-ambition iron-level emissions threshold will be critical in guiding investment, trade, and purchasing toward deeply decarbonized ironmaking solutions.

...

Investment in reviving or “relining” the seven aging blast furnaces in the Great Lakes region is a multi-billion dollar bet that risks continuing job decline at these assets, weakens the ability of the US steel industry to compete in the global market, and perpetuates serious health and climate emissions harm from coal-based steel production.

Although the seven remaining coal-based blast furnaces represent only about a quarter of US steel production, these plants generate approximately 75 percent of the industry’s emissions. Continuing business-as-usual operations at these sites for the next few decades risks blowing past the domestic steel industry’s carbon budget by nearly two-fold (RMI analysis based on ORNL and MPP data).

...

Restoring trust and creating value by being truly inclusive.

American Century: Comeback Kid: The Fall and Rise of Abercrombie & Fitch

Roughly 10 years ago, walking into an Abercrombie & Fitch (ticker: ANF) store was an all-out sensory experience. You were hit with the scent of the brand’s signature fragrance, “Fierce,” and greeted by shirtless male models/sales associates. The lighting was dark and edgy, and the music was thumping.

Abercrombie described it as a “charged atmosphere that is confident and just a bit provocative.”1 While iconic at the time, this in-store experience, synonymous with the Abercrombie & Fitch brand, reflected the roots of its downfall.

... read more including on ...

• Abercrombie’s Exclusionary Branding: Signs of Trouble
• Abercrombie’s Decline: ‘Toxic’ CEO’s Role in Falling Stock and Declining Sales
• Abercrombie & Fitch’s Rebranding and Comeback
• Abercrombie’s Commitment to Ethical and Sustainable Sourcing
• Abercrombie’s Improved Human Capital Management
• From Exclusion to Inclusion: Abercrombie’s Extended Size Range
• Abercrombie’s Commitment to Sustainable, Value-Creating Changes
• ANF’s Sustainable Future: Results and Potential Prospects

Franklin Templeton: 2025 ESG outlook: Sustainability as a business driver

ClearBridge Investments: How companies manage their environmental and social impacts and governance will remain a fundamental concern for investors, companies and governments around the world in 2025.

"For over two centuries, Pictet has embraced a long-term perspective, guiding our pioneering work on megatrends. These powerful social, economic, environmental, and technological forces shape our world beyond normal economic cycles. Our history is marked by helping investors navigate global complexities.

By understanding structural trends in both public and private markets, we tailor our investment capabilities to meet diverse needs.

Megatrending 2025 delves into key themes across three major sections...

Medtech innovation: dissecting inefficiencies in healthcare delivery

Technological advances including new procedural methods and robotics are improving surgery and enabling healthcare systems to treat more patients

Ageing populations, persistent cost inflation and practitioner shortages are combining to place healthcare systems under rising strain across developed markets. Transformational innovations in medical technology (medtech) are helping to address these challenges by improving patient safety, enabling quicker recoveries from surgery and delivering efficiencies for healthcare providers.

... read more on four aspects of innovation and patient impact ...

Denying climate causality won’t alter the rapidly changing investment landscape

The onward march of clean technologies will continue, despite polarisation on climate issues, creating opportunities for rational investors who can see through the fog of political rhetoric.

For those who deal in the universal currency of facts, the extreme polarisation of views on climate issues makes no sense. The political narrative that climate change is a “hoax” willfully ignores economic reality.

Against a backdrop of rapidly expanding demand for energy, the competitiveness of key clean technologies, including renewables, is relentlessly improving. Meanwhile, the financial risks arising from climate-related disasters are too great to ignore: global losses from natural catastrophes totalled US$320bn in 2024.

...

21 Moorfields, London

Agenda here

Do company emissions impact shareholder returns?

Some studies have found that high-emission companies are associated with higher returns to shareholders. They claim this is due to a ‘Carbon Premium’; outsized returns required by investors for bearing transition risk.

However, the overall balance of evidence is very mixed. Some studies find a negative connection, and some find no connection at all. In our view, it’s unlikely a systemic Carbon Premium exists.

These differences are largely due to choices around emissions data, metrics, and general methodology. The multitude of factors that influence shareholder expectations and returns, coupled with poor data, means that trying to robustly detect a carbon premium is likely to be functionally impossible.

First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute: Integrating nature & biodiversity into investment - an asset owner perspective

The First Sentier MUFG Sustainable Investment Institute commissioned the ‘Integrating nature & biodiversity into investment – an asset owner perspective’ report as asset owners are at a critical point in their nature and biodiversity journeys. As more funds engage with the TNFD framework, clarity is being sought on key motivations, challenges and gaps as the need for the theme to be integrated more deeply into portfolios progressively strengthens. 

This report, produced by Pensions for Purpose, focuses on asset owners’ approaches to integrating nature and biodiversity into their sustainability priorities, governance frameworks, resource capacity, reporting, and asset manager expectations, as well as data-related challenges. Key themes covered in the report include:

• Nature & biodiversity within sustainability priorities
• Perceptions of dependencies, impact, risks and opportunities
• Reporting plans and data, together with the role of the TNFD
• Best practice steps

Millani's tenth Semi-Annual ESG Sentiment Study of Canadian Institutional Investors highlights a pragmatic shift in how Canadian investors approach ESG.

While external pressures—including U.S. political shifts, regulatory uncertainty, and anti-ESG rhetoric—continue to shape the landscape, 93% of investors continue to anticipate market volatility in the near future and remain committed to ESG integration. 

Rather than retreating, they are refining their strategies, prioritizing risk management, direct engagement, and measurable business impacts over broad ESG narratives.

S&P Global: Unlocking Transition Opportunities (Summit | April 2025)

"You’re invited to join S&P Global Sustainable1 for the 4^th annual Sustainable1 Summit in London on Wednesday, 30 April 2025 at The Peninsula London from 10:00am to 6:30pm. 

Throughout the day, thought leaders from across the global value chain will focus on managing risk, uncovering opportunities, and reporting with confidence. You can view the full agenda here."

S&P Global: Beyond ESG with Understanding the S&P 500 ESG Index Ecosystem (Live Webinar)

Wednesday, February 19, 2025 | 10amET/3pmGMT
 

As investor priorities for sustainability evolve globally, S&P Dow Jones Indices has developed a broad lineup of indices measuring the world’s largest equity market through a sustainability lens.

What actually is sustainable investment (or ESG) research?

You think you know.  We thought we knew.  But do we actually? Can we define sustainable investment (or ESG) research in better terms than "if it looks like a duck..."? Does it matter? (Spoiler: Yes, it probably does matter, a lot).

What research is not

• Research is not the same as 'DATA'.
• Research is not the same as '(ESG) RATINGS'.
• Research is not the same as 'ANALYTICS'.

While these three are all important information-related products and services within the sustainable investment landscape and all have parallels in 'mainstream' investment practice, they differ from research in one critical respect: they do not explicitly ask or answer investment questions.

They are not, therefore, directly comparable to 'mainstream' investment research (typically written by sell-side analysts that recommends whether to BUY this stock or to SELL that stock.  Nor (to bring back the sustainability / corporate governance dimension) do data, ratings or analytics present reasoned arguments as to why investors should vote FOR or AGAINST resolutions put to company AGMs.

My questions (RSVP via this discussion group: Research practices & value chain or to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.):

• Which firms write the best investment RESEARCH on climate transition?
• Who are the influential (individual) analysts at these firms?

(... particularly if you have ideas on the Basic Materials, Electric Utilities or Oil & Gas sectors)

Do we actually need a precise definition for sustainable investment research?

In one respect, NO.  It doesn't really matter.

If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck and quacks like a duck, it probably is a duck…

We … sort of … know what sustainable investment looks like … because we know what 'mainstream' investment research looks like and we can extrapolate … and because we have seen some of what is produced. 

In another respect, YES.  The existence and flow of research matters fundamentally to the health of sustainable investment because it informs and develops a debate about which aspects of sustainability matter how much to which investors and why.  It guides decisions over what DATA to seek, how to weight RATINGS and how to apply ANALYTICS meaningfully.

If we develop any of these other information services without robust research underpinning, we run the risks of:

• Seeking DATA that investors can't actually use
• Weighting RATINGS in a way that doesn't reflect the context or models of the companies being rated
• Evaluating portfolios with tools that ANALYTICS tools that mislead around the significance of exposure

Worst of all would be if we allowed ourselves to believe these derivative information services were actually RESEARCH themselves and that somehow we could reverse-engineer answers to unspecified questions by simply throwing enough data at the wall and seeing what sticks. 

… but it might be a goose or a chicken … or a duck-billed platypus

So, because - at SRI-Connect - we are currently engaged in a process of articulating - for a number of corporate clients - who the opinion-formers (fundamental RESEARCH analysts) are on the topic of climate transition (and specifically on shareholder resolutions on the topic), we have taken it upon ourselves to articulate what we think sustainable investment research is … and how we think it differs from other sustainable investment information services. 

The characteristics of sustainable investment research

(Differentiating characteristics, IMHO, in bold italics)

At SRI-Connect, we define sustainable investment 'RESEARCH' as forward-looking analysis that uses human judgement or evaluation to combine contextual information with data with the aim of answering a specific, articulated, idiosyncratic question about the suitability of investment in a defined asset (or group of assets) or the desirability of taking other investment-related action.

How it differs

As such, RESEARCH differs from three other information-related services to investors (which are often loosely - but somewhat unhelpfully grouped under the heading 'research'):

• 'DATA' services - which involve the presentation of qualitative or quantitative information without analysis or judgement
• 'RATINGS' - which involve the scoring or comparing companies against their peers with regard to (typically) notional standard of sustainability performance or 'risk'
• 'ANALYTICS' - which involve the application of data to portfolios to measure their exposure to sustainability issues that the companies they are invested in are exposed to

Our next steps

• 1] To hear what you, dear SRI-Connect community, think and to adjust our definition based on your feedback
• 2] To make visible the (currently largely invisible) investment influencers on climate change for the benefit of: [a] the quality of the wider investment debate on the issue and [b] a proxy season that is characterised (in respect of climate change) by enlightened conversations between intelligent individuals rather than by heated debate in the media.
• 3] To track this journey of discovery through iiiCC blogposts on Invisible Investment Influencers on Climate Change.

Current climate policies risk catastrophic societal and economic impacts

The global economy could face a 50% loss in GDP between 2070 and 2090, unless immediate policy action on risks posed by the climate crisis is taken. Populations are already impacted by food system shocks, water insecurity, heat stress and infectious diseases. If unchecked, mass mortality, mass displacement, severe economic contraction and conflict become more likely.

‘Planetary Solvency – finding our balance with nature’ is the IFoA’s fourth report in collaboration with climate scientists. The report develops a framework for global risk management to address these risks and show how this approach can support future prosperity. It also shows how a lack of realistic risk messaging to guide policy decisions has led to slower action than is needed.

The report proposes a novel Planetary Solvency risk dashboard, to provide decision-useful risk information to support policymakers to drive human activity within the finite bounds of the planet that we live on.

Link to summary page

A new economic analysis by Creative Investment Research reveals that the Department of Government Efficiency's (DOGE) cancellation of 104 diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) contracts will result in staggering economic losses ranging from $1.6 trillion to $2.6 trillion annually, far exceeding the reported $1 billion in "savings."

While DOGE, under the leadership of Elon Musk, claims to have reduced government spending, our analysis demonstrates that these cuts will increase social and economic costs through rising employment discrimination, housing inequities, business exclusion, healthcare disparities, and criminal justice failures.

Hardman & Co: Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds in 2024 ‒ A year of trials and tribulations

Only Cordiant and Pantheon buck the trend

For the remaining 29 quoted Infrastructure Investment Companies (IICs) and the Renewable Energy Infrastructure Funds (REIFs), 2024 was a dire year ‒ as was 2023. NAV discounts widened appreciably, while some REIFs, in particular, really struggled.

...

Clearly, sector investors will be hoping that 2025 brings some good news ‒ on the back of the high yields currently prevailing ‒ and enables the wide NAV discounts to be narrowed.

Note - report published September 2024. Purina is part of Swiss-based Nestlé S.A (pet care division) and publishes a separate CSR report.

Amundi: ESG Thema #19 - Measuring Scope 3 Emissions: implications & challenges for investors

Key takeaways

• Scope 3 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions include all indirect emissions that occur in a company’s value chain, both upstream and downstream. These emissions are crucial for understanding a company's full climate impact.
• Upstream emissions can include those from the production of raw materials, transportation, and business travel. Downstream emissions can include those from the use of sold products and their end-of-life treatment.
• Scope 3 emissions often represent the bulk of a company's total green GHG emissions and are thus essential for understanding the full climate-related risks and opportunities associated with an investment.
• The GHG Protocol’s Corporate Value Chain (Scope 3) Accounting and Reporting Standard classifies Scope 3 emissions into 15 distinct categories, covering both upstream and downstream emissions. These categories are designed to be mutually exclusive to prevent double-counting of emissions....

Over time, the forces behind the energy transition have become deeper and the motivations more diverse.

A longstanding catalyst of the energy transition has been the adverse impact of burning fossil fuels on the climate. Globally, there has been a consensus that the world needed to shift away from a scarce, expensive, inefficient, and volatile commodity-based fossil fuel system to a cheaper, cleaner, and leaner technology that is readily available and exposed to falling costs.

The shift from hydrocarbons to electrons has resulted in greater electrification and digitalization within the power space. The commercialization of electric vehicle (EV) technology is directly linked to these initiatives as transportation is a huge contributor to emissions. Electrifying transport is, and will continue to be, beneficial from an emissions reduction perspective.

But recently, new energy transition catalysts have emerged, such as national security (particularly as importing fuel through pipelines that could potentially be compromised has emerged as a threat) and the deglobalization of supply chains. As reshoring and nearshoring accelerate, there is a need for countries in both emerging and developed markets to dramatically increase investment in their capacity to generate, transmit, and distribute power, which is also providing momentum to the energy transition...

For the fifth year running, FIR is publishing the results of the ESG written question campaign put to CAC 40 companies at their annual general meetings in 2024. This year, the new theme of directors' expertise in CSR issues was addressed from a governance perspective.

In addition, this year's report examines overall results from a double materiality angle, and final scores are presented in a more granular form.

On the podium this year we have Michelin with 2.2/3, then Veolia with 2.1/3, then L'Oréal with 2/3.
The analysis and rating of the companies was carried out by the members of the Dialogue & Commitment Commission within FIR, which manages over 6,200 billion euros in assets.

After a first version in 2023 of a document listing all collaborative investor engagement initiatives on biodiversity, the Frenchsif is publishing a new edition of its review this year, including initiatives on climate.

As a reminder, the initiatives listed are driven by or aimed at investors, target companies or public authorities and are ongoing or regularly renewed.

The document is based on Frenchsif research to the end of 2024, and is intended to be regularly updated.

The automotive sector plays a critical role in the transition to a nature-positive world. In 2023, global vehicle production reached 94 million, contributing 3% of global gross domestic product (GDP), and the sector is projected to grow rapidly at a rate of 6-7% annually until 2030.

This growth is fuelled by a growing global middle class, an expansion of emerging markets and a shift in consumer preferences towards sustainable mobility. The shift can be seen in the surge of electric vehicle (EV) sales from 1 million to 14 million per year between 2017 and 2023.

This progress is supported by governments across the world, with 43 countries collectively committed to accelerating the transition towards 100% zero-emissions vehicles. These goals have also been integrated into national policies in key markets, including the EU, the UK, Canada and the US, which aim to scale up zero-emissions vehicles and circularity.

Despite these efforts, the automotive sector still contributes to biodiversity loss through pollution, water use, land-use change and greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its entire value chain – from material sourcing to vehicle manufacturing and end-of-life management.

This report summarizes the sector’s key impacts and dependencies on nature and sets out priority actions that corporate leaders can take to transform their businesses.

The World Economic Forum, in collaboration with Oliver Wyman, has spent the past two years
gathering data and insights through research, expert consultation and industry interviews. This
work has paved the way for the Forum’s 2025 Nature Positive Transitions: Sectors report series.

Building from those released on the chemical sector, the household and personal care products sector, and the cement and concrete sector in 2023, these new reports focus on four sectors: mining and metals, automotive, offshore wind and ports.

This initiative is part of a broader collaborative effort with Business for Nature and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development (WBCSD).

The Path to a New Era for Nuclear Energy is a new report by the International Energy Agency that looks at the opportunities for nuclear energy to address energy security and climate concerns – and at critical elements needed to pursue these opportunities, including policies, innovation and financing.

Nuclear energy is a well-established technology that has provided electricity and heat to consumers for well over 50 years but has faced a number of challenges in recent years. However, nuclear energy is making a strong comeback, with rising investment, new technology advances and supportive policies in over 40 countries.

Electricity demand is projected to grow strongly over the next decades, including from data centres, further underpinning the importance of having sufficient new sources of stable low-emissions electricity. Despite the rising momentum behind nuclear energy, various challenges need to be overcome for nuclear to play an important role in the future energy landscape. 

This report reviews the status of nuclear energy around the world and explores risks related to policies, construction and financing. It provides the long-term outlook for nuclear power in light of policies and ambitions, quantifying nuclear power capacity and the related investment over the period to 2050.

The report shows that with continued innovation, sufficient government support and new 
business models, small modular reactors can play a pivotal role in enabling a new era for nuclear energy. It highlights potential mechanisms to unlock financing while also emphasising the critical importance of adequate planning for the required workforce and supply chains.

In 2024, the world broke new temperature records while precipitation extremes increased. Water-related disasters caused extensive impacts, with climate change contributing to the severity of floods, droughts, and cyclones.

Some of the key findings include:

Climate change is making water disasters worse. Rising temperatures caused by fossil fuel burning are increasing the strength and rainfall intensity of monsoons, cyclones and other storm systems.

Global temperatures continue to increase rapidly. Average air temperature over land area hit an all-time high, reaching 1.2°C above the 1995-2005 average. More than half the world’s population spread over 111 countries experienced their warmest year yet, while 34 countries set new maximum temperature records.

Both high rainfall and drought are becoming more extreme. In 2024, months with record-low precipitation were 38% more common than during the 1995-2005 baseline period, while record-high 24h rainfall extremes were 52% more frequent.

Water-related disasters caused major damage in 2024. They caused over 8,700 deaths, displaced 40 million people, and inflicted more than US$550 billion in damages. Flash floods, landslides, and tropical cyclones were the worst types of disasters in terms of casualties and economic damage....

WEF: Global Risks Report 2025 

The 20th edition of the Global Risks Report 2025 reveals an increasingly fractured global landscape, where escalating geopolitical, environmental, societal and technological challenges threaten stability and progress.

This edition presents the findings of the Global Risks Perception Survey 2024-2025 (GRPS), which captures insights from over 900 experts worldwide. The report analyses global risks through three timeframes to support decision- makers in balancing current crises and longer-term priorities.

Set on tackling the Scope 3 or ‘hidden’ emissions, the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance conducts an in-depth sectoral analysis to clearly outline obstacles to Scope 3 integration and to offer ways forward for a multitude of stakeholders.

The challenges with Scope 3 emission accounting include data reliability and double counting. The sector analysis also showed the discrepancies among the different sectors (oil and gas, utilities, and financials).

To chart a path forward, the paper underscores the importance of three key requirements:

• Reliable emission data should become available at company level.
• Policies that require transparent disclosures should be established across
  different jurisdictions.
• Asset owners should capitalise on increased data transparency and reliability.

Set on tackling the Scope 3 or ‘hidden’ emissions, the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance conducts an in-depth sectoral analysis to clearly outline obstacles to Scope 3 integration and to offer ways forward for a multitude of stakeholders.

The challenges with Scope 3 emission accounting include data reliability and double counting. The
sector analysis also showed the discrepancies among the different sectors (oil and gas, utilities, and financials).

To chart a path forward, the paper underscores the importance of three key requirements:

• Reliable emission data should become available at company level.
• Policies that require transparent disclosures should be established across
  different jurisdictions.
• Asset owners should capitalise on increased data transparency and reliability.

For each of these requirements, the Alliance outlines actions points for the relevant stakeholders—corporates, policymakers, and asset owners.

This report aims to guide companies in identifying technology levers while providing finance practitioners with clarity on the technology options ready for scaled deployment, enabling them to channel capital more effectively towards the innovations and infrastructures.

It addresses knowledge and financing gaps by presenting a broad landscape of green technologies across sectors, supported by expert insights on commercial viability, such as market opportunities, technical maturity, and financing needs.

Furthermore, the report supplements the ongoing industry initiatives by the Green Development Institute, the Prototype Hong Kong Green Fintech Map in collaboration with Cyberport and Invest Hong Kong (InvestHK) designed to help corporates and financial firms identify green and sustainable financial technology solutions that meet their business needs, and the HKMA green fintech competition that sought to identify market-ready solutions to help the banking sector address the challenges of climate-related risk management, analytics, disclosures and reporting.

Climate damage would deliver an almost 10 percent annual hit to Japan’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP) if current global climate policy trajectories continue, according to new economic modelling.

Physical impacts are set to wipe out JPY 952 trillion (US$9.2 trillion) from Japan’s economy between now and 2050, translating to hundreds of thousands of yen being lost by Japanese households annually.

Impacts to Japan are forecasted to be higher than those for the U.S. and Europe. Asia - home to seven out of Japan’s top 10 trading partners - is amongst the world’s most climate change-exposed regions.

This reveals the significant economic risks posed by inadequate climate ambition and the proposed “linear” trajectory to net zero. To safeguard its future, Japan must pursue an ambitious science-based transition pathways for transition that is supported by the necessary supporting climate policy.

This report covers the role of Nordic banks in financing the fossil fuel industry. It is based on financial research conducted by Profundo, a Netherlands based research and advice consultancy.

The report investigates credit flows of 10 Nordic banks into fossil fuel companies over the period January 2016 – June 2024, as well as investments in fossil fuel bonds and shares identified at the most recently available filing date in August 2024.

This report is a joint publication of the Nordic Center for Sustainable Finance, Profundo, Fair Finance Guide Sweden, Coal-Free Finland (Hiilivapaa Suomi) the Swedish Society for Nature Conservation (SSNC), BankTrack, and Future is in our hands.

Key takeaways

• Nuclear power initiatives are expanding because of the growing need for clean energy. The focus is on restarting existing reactors and building small module reactors.
• More extreme weather is adding risk worldwide. Certain industries, such as insurance, are uniquely exposed. Even benign weather changes affect profitability for some firms.
• Increasing water dependency is influencing corporate strategy, capital expenditures, and economic growth. Demand is rising, but clean water sources are shrinking.

As investors focus on the long-term drivers of investment performance, of which structural environmental and social changes are a major and increasing component, there is a growing demand for initiatives and leadership that will address major risks and unlock opportunities.

[1] New ways to define and measure sustainable AUM and flows: As fund-naming rules become more stringent and as more investors incorporate sustainability criteria into their investment process, there is a growing need for new methods to track funds that may lack sustainability labels but are still aligned with sustainable goals.

[2] Increased focus on the physical risks and the role of insurance: This is particularly timely, especially as news of the LA wildfires dominated headlines. Schroders expects this area (and the role of insurance) to become increasingly important as mitigation efforts are not progressing quickly enough and as natural disasters cause billions of dollars’ worth of damages.

[3] Further focus on thematics: Beyond generic ESG, sustainability-minded investors will become more specific in seeking alpha opportunities. These include technology and innovation (AI — of course), health & wellness, sustainable infrastructure and resource security, and the circular economy. 

[4] Emerging focus on natural capital and biodiversity: Schroders acknowledges that “actual investment dollars moving into this area are still quite scarce”, but it has observed increased client interest in areas like regenerative agriculture, forestry, and water conservation.

[5] Increasing focus on private assets: Private assets are expected to play a bigger role in sustainability goals as more investors include them in their portfolios. Decarbonization in private markets is one of the key themes in focus here. 

Planet Tracker examined Toray’s climate transition strategy across its emissions profile, policy and engagement, governance, risk management, and capital allocation. Toray aims for carbon neutrality by 2050 and invests in low-carbon opportunities, however its focus on intensity-based and avoidance targets – rather than absolute reductions – undermines its alignment with the most ambitious climate goals. 

Without stronger absolute reduction commitments, enhanced supply chain accountability, and clearer links between incentives and Net Zero goals, Toray appears more likely to align with a 2°C to 3°C scenario, rather than Paris Aligned targets.

Free Float: Does anyone vote against directors based on performance?

Is there a reason capital markets will tolerate the "meritocracy" argument for buying and selling stocks or hiring/firing, but NOT for boardrooms given the average director receives 96% votes in favor of re-election (or election)?  This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

In brief

• Climate analytics initially focused on carbon emissions metrics such as carbon footprint and carbon intensity. While carbon emissions metrics can help understand where a company currently stands on its emissions profile, these backward-looking metrics that are often lagged by one to two years provide only limited insights into a company’s exposures to climate risks. To understand a company’s exposures to climate risks, climate scenario analysis can provide further insights.
• Given the multitude of climate scenarios that are available, it is crucial that investors understand how scenarios are constructed, the uncertainties that are inherent in climate model design, and the associated implications for the results of a climate scenario analysis.

What are Climate scenarios?

Climate scenario analysis is a process to help organizations consider how the future might look if certain trends continue or certain conditions are met with respect to the climate.  Climate scenarios analysis is generally done by running simulations of plausible climate futures, based on a set of assumptions on the economy and its interaction with the climate. These simulations produce climate and economic outputs such as global GHG emissions, GDP and energy demand given specific assumptions.

...

Polarization continued to rock geopolitics, national politics, and financial markets in 2024. Ironically, last year’s turbulence has left thematic investing even better positioned to benefit from opportunities. 

Summary

•     From stalwarts to start-ups, the business of finance is booming
•     Broader growth as AI tools are practically applied across sectors
•     Reshoring and regulation should boost robotics and automation 

While reshoring doesn’t feature among the circular economy’s traditional refrain of ‘reduce, reuse, recycle’, it does act as a catalyst to promote a host of circular solutions. With a strong focus on IT, AI and industrials as well as domestic suppliers, the circular economy strategy is well positioned to capture the short and long-term growth of reshoring waves.

Summary

• Reshoring is gaining momentum amid high tensions and tariffs
• Reshoring promotes circularity, circularity facilitates reshoring
• Reshoring tailwinds strongest for Industrials, IT and local manufacturers

RFI Foundation: Will climate financial stability risk assessment produce headwinds for climate finance in emerging markets?

The Financial Stability Board is developing an assessment framework to evaluate the risks to financial stability relating to climate change. In broad terms, it will translate a conceptual framework for how climate risks generate financial risks, and how these could cascade into a systemic risk.

Using the framework, the FSB outlined several types of proxies and metrics that could be used to evaluate the severity of different or multiple types of climate-related risks to financial stability. One challenge to the type of framework being developed by the FSB is that the prescriptions for large global financial institutions that follow from its conclusions could be misaligned with the interests of emerging markets and developed economies (EMDEs).

Many of the risk metrics are being developed with reference to developed economies and specifically reference the way that “global financial stability risks may arise from climate shocks in EMDEs [including those that] originate in the real economy and transmit internationally [such as] in some EMDEs that provide agricultural and mining products to the rest of the world”.

There is a clear connection between economic shocks in large EMDEs and global financial institutions and markets. Climate-related risks are among the types of risks that can spill over widely into global markets. However, often the application of macroeconomic metrics to identify sources of risks to global financial stability can have the impact — even if unintended — of raising barriers to flows of climate finance to EMDEs.

The FSB’s role is to identify ways to avoid global financial instability, and it approaches the issue from this perspective. The framework identifies ‘proxies’ for climate-related risk exposure for the region being considered. It follows up by identifying exposure metrics that relate climate risk to the financial sector. These issues are then linked together to identify the degree of risk to financial stability, incorporating information to blend climate risks with sources of systemic vulnerabilities that heighten the financial risk related to the climate risks and exposures.

Taken together, these metrics can provide an accurate picture of the parts of the global financial sector that are most at risk from climate change. Yet the actions that investors and financial institutions may imply from these types of metrics often have unintended and counterproductive impacts. For example, large global financial institutions may respond to the identification of heightened climate financial risk in EMDEs by ‘de-risking’ their climate-related exposures in these markets.

De-risking can benefit global financial stability while at the same time contributing to raising climate-related risks by making investments in mitigation, adaptation and resilience harder to come by. Global financial sector assets are concentrated in advanced economies and financial centres, which means financial stability will provide the greatest financial benefits to these same markets.

The consequence of de-risking away from climate-related risks will have the greatest negative consequences for EMDEs. To borrow from the FSB’s scenario description of the way climate-related financial risks are transmitted to the economy, the amplification of the impacts of climate-related shocks to EMDEs will come through reduced credit availability, increasing insurance gaps, and disruption to their own domestic financial sector institutions.

The conclusion isn’t to avoid producing assessment frameworks like that proposed by the FSB. Global financial instability will be widely damaging globally. At the same time, there are multi-trillion gaps in the amount of climate finance needed in EMDEs that are essential to achieving global climate goals. Formalizing assessments based on financial stability has the potential to be counterproductive if this undermines other efforts to increase flows of climate finance — and private climate finance in particular — to EMDEs.

Want to stay updated about the implementation of responsible finance in OIC markets & Islamic finance? Subscribe to RFI’s free email newsletter today!

Recommendations to dismantle diversity, equity, and inclusion (DEI) programs, supported by the incoming administration’s “Department of Government Efficiency” (DOGE), rest on a flawed understanding of their purpose, impact, and beneficiaries. Black-owned firms receive a relatively small percentage of the $133 billion in diversity-focused federal contracts, underscoring the need to improve, not eliminate, these programs.

The economic and social costs of this federal shutdown will disproportionately affect Black Americans. 

The freezing of federal grants and loans by the Trump administration creates immediate and significant economic and social risks for Black Americans. Black communities, which are already disproportionately reliant on Medicaid, federal housing assistance, education programs, and other social services, are poised to bear the brunt of this sweeping shutdown. Here’s an analysis of the potential economic impact: 

At US companies, there are more shareholder proposals than ever targeting environmental and social (E&S) issues. When it comes to sustainability-focused shareholder resolutions, responsible investors want their sustainability ambitions reflected in proxy voting decisions. 

This latest stewardship research analyzes data from the 2024 proxy voting seasons and compares it with previous years. It shows that asset managers’ backing for E&S proposals hit a five-year low in 2024.

Investors who want their fund manager’s proxy voting decisions to reflect higher sustainability ambitions must remain vigilant. They should pay careful attention to their manager selection, fund selection, and keep up with specific voting policies.   

UKSIF – Membership Manager

UKSIF – Media Relations Manager

UKSIF – Committee Members

Senior Analyst, Policy (18 Month Fixed Term Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Specialist, Sustainability Initiatives (18 Month Fixed Term Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Senior Policy Analyst, Japan - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Associate, Responsible Investment Engagement & Innovation (12 Month Fixed Term Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

JobPost: TrustPilot - Group ESG Strategy & Reporting Manager (London | close unknown)

JobPost: Zurich Insurance - Climate Change & Sustainability Risk Consultant (remote | close 19 Feb)

Stewardship Intern (4 Month Contract) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

Policy Specialist LATAM (Mexico) - Principles for Responsible Investment - Applied

JobPost: Chanel - ESG Due Diligence & Governance Manager (Paris | Close Unknown)

JobPost: Lloyds Banking Group - Head of Reporting & Controls - ESG (London | Close 7 Feb)

JobPost: Blackstone Credit & Insurance (“BXCI”) – Sustainability Analytics and Reporting, Vice President (NYC)

JobPost: GE Aerospace - Sustainability & ESG Ratings Lead (Various locations)

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) & Climate Strategist
Apply via LinkedIn

Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Manager

Apply via LinkedIn

nb Climate Asset Management is an independent investment firm co-owned by HSBC Asset Management (HSBC AM) and Pollination.

Head of Middle East & Northern Africa, Responsible Investment Ecosystems Close 25 Jan

Head, Sustainability Initiatives Close 5 Jan

JobPost: PRI - People Partner (Projects & Initiatives) & People Partner (Engagement) (London | Closing: 8:00pm, 5th Jan 2025 GMT)

People & Culture Team
 
Employment Type Full time Please note, where PRI has an office there is an expectation to work a minimum of 2 days per week 
 
Location  Hybrid · London, UK   
 
Seniority Mid-level
Closing: 8:00pm, 5th Jan 2025 GMT