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Many companies are responding to the urgency of transitioning their business but are running into challenges. One barrier they face is that it can be harder or more costly to access finance if they are penalised for using debt-based finance for transition-related investments.

Transition finance is a critical part of the global transition that will be needed to meet the requirements of the Paris Agreement and the global push towards Net Zero by 2050. Despite the big financing opportunity that the climate transition represents, debt-based financial markets are still approaching this with a short-term mindset that can impose barriers to transition finance.

These barriers, which are present across financial markets, are driven by features in our economic models that determine what is valued and how costs and benefits of the transition are calculated. The most common way to work around the limitations of the current economic model is to combine debt-based finance with concessional capital, but the structures that result can be complex, they can take a long time to negotiate, and they have been criticised for delivering only limited additionality.

To take just one example, there has been substantial effort by companies, governments and multilateral development banks to support the energy transition from coal in Indonesia, and this has run into many of these barriers.  Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership (JETP) was signed in 2022, and the first early retirement to be replaced with renewables occurred three years later, with the announcement in February by Indonesia’s Minister of Energy and Mineral Resources that the Cirebon-1 power plant would be retired in 2035, seven years earlier than scheduled.

Replacing power generation assets is complex in any case, and there has been a lot of focus put on the Cirebon coal phase-out financing because it is a novel transaction, and is hoped to pave the way for other transactions to follow. The impact of follow-on transition finance transactions will be greatest if the learning process in each transaction speeds up the process and makes it easier for companies in the value chain to use the experience to shape their own transition plans.

Yet, during the structuring phase of the coal phase-out transaction, Kelvin Wong, global head of energy, renewables and infrastructure at DBS, one of the structuring banks, acknowledged that “with the difficulties we have gone through in the last 30 months, I’m more circumspect about the viability of the project”. He added, “Had we known the costs that we know now, it is debatable whether the Indonesian authorities would still have wanted to undertake this same exercise”.

Part of the challenge was due to slow and uneven follow-through on the JETP, which had the result of shifting costs onto the utility and electricity consumers. The United States, which was a co-lead along with Japan, subsequently withdrew from the JETP, highlighting the issue of reliability of concessional capital sources.

Beyond the political risks and limited accessibility of international climate finance, the rigidities in debt-based finance can make it difficult to make it resilient and adaptable enough to withstand future economic volatility related to the climate transition. Within transition projects specifically, higher debt needs mean the challenges are even greater. There needs to be sufficient funds raised to refinance debt already borrowed for existing unsustainable assets, while also investing in new physical assets (renewable energy in the case of the coal phase-out projects).

The role of concessional capital in transition finance is to provide a buffer, whether through lower-yielding debt or first-loss capital, in order to hold down the interest rate on the commercial finance mobilised at a level where the project economics work for all financial stakeholders. Projects involving the phase-out and replacement of unsustainable with sustainable assets also have to navigate a process to find an outcome that is just for all stakeholders, including affected workers and local communities. 

This is a sizeable challenge for individual transition projects, which can seem easier to manage with debt-based and concessional capital, but this structure can introduce rigidities beyond the project. It can affect the way that companies upstream in the value chain respond to transition investments. 

For example, coal phase-out projects should be designed in a way that rewards value chain participants who anticipate and mitigate their own transition risks even before the coal phase-out projects close.  Sometimes, the economics of transition work against this objective by adding additional costs for transitioning companies that don’t impact companies that ignore transition risks.

A case study covered by Climate & Capital describes the transition investments of an Indonesian coal miner that took a strategic decision to use the recent profitability in its coal business to help fund its efforts to reach 50% of non-coal revenue by 2028 through investment in renewable energy and gold mining. 

Over the short term, as it scaled up investments in its transition projects, the miner needed substantial finance, which it raised through borrowing. However, the reliance on debt for its new investments led to a cut in its credit rating because it became more highly indebted (and viewed as more of a financial risk by creditors) compared to peers who didn’t pursue transition-related investments, even though its transition investments can make it more resilient as utilities phase out coal and demand wanes. 

This is indicative of the ‘tragedy of the horizon’ that then-Bank of England governor Mark Carney warned about almost 10 years ago.  In his speech, Carney warned that the problem was that the “catastrophic impacts of climate change will be felt beyond the traditional horizons of most actors – imposing a cost on future generations that the current generation has no direct incentive to fix”. 

The increase in climate disasters is showing the cost that current and future generations already have to bear. However, we still see that for many transition-related investments, not only is there not a direct incentive to fix the issues, but the financial incentives in debt-based finance work against companies making the transition investments they need to make.

A decade ago, Carney highlighted the cost of a delayed energy transition because “earlier action will mean less costly adjustment” and can contribute to fewer companies seeing “jump-to-distress pricing because of shifts in environmental policy or performance”.  

The transition risks that Carney highlighted still exist, but many companies are disincentivised from taking the necessary action because debt-based financial markets and credit ratings on which many investors and financial institutions rely are short-sighted. They undervalue the future credit risk associated with inaction on transition risk relative to the credit risk associated with the transition investments they take.

If credit ratings disincentivise transition investments, fewer companies will pursue these investments.  For an industry in transition, delaying transition investments increases the risk of cliff-edge events when transition risk is recognised suddenly with ‘jump-to-distress pricing’ that factors in risks only after they materialise.

For coal, the transition risk is both foreseeable and well defined. IEA’s global Net Zero by 2050 roadmap expects “low-emissions electricity [to rise] so rapidly that no new unabated coal plants [that were not under construction at the beginning of 2023] are built”. This impacts coal-fired power plants and their value chain.

The risk to coal miners from the scenario in the IEA’s Net Zero by 2050 roadmap is that demand falls rapidly as power generation shifts to renewable sources. This shift has been underway for years, and in some emerging markets like Pakistan and countries across Africa, the change in demand has begun to sharply accelerate.

Companies that diversify their revenue to other sources are likely to be far better positioned than those which do not, but financial incentives in debt markets through credit ratings counteract and could lead to companies increasing their risk through inaction in pursuit of short-term gains.

Companies need time to pivot their business strategies towards less transition-exposed sources of revenue and should not be penalised for making long-term investments that reduce their transition risk. Investors and banks, as well as other stakeholders, including workers and local communities, will pay the price if credit ratings provide the wrong financial incentives related to transition risk.   

In addition to financial losses for creditors, the employees of impacted companies will face job losses, electricity consumers will face disruption and higher costs if the transition proceeds in a less orderly way, and communities will be exposed to pollution from coal-fired power plants for longer.

Making progress at restructuring the debt-based financing for one link in the value chain can help to address the economic, environmental and social costs from continuing the status quo towards a disorderly transition. However, the rigidities introduced by debt-based finance may not fully alleviate risks and could just shift the risk onto another part of the value chain.

At each stage of the value chain, the transition risk is concentrated by debt, which moves the claims of some stakeholders’ interests ahead of others.  The inequity is greatest where the financial decision-making of those providing debt finance does not fully capture transition risk.

Improving consideration of transition risk can improve the situation if it adequately rewards companies for mitigating transition risk or penalises those that ignore the risk. However, since the speed of the climate transition is uncertain and can impact the intensity of transition risk exposures, debt-based finance is likely to be too inflexible to adjust to a changing reality and thus may not be the most effective way to finance the transition.

Alternative approaches that link financing returns to their success in supporting the transition can help to remove the rigidity of debt and the potentially counter-productive incentives that are created for companies. Financing the transition with instruments other than debt, including through Islamic finance, can offer more flexibility to adapt to changes in the global transition, although it may introduce other challenges in today’s debt-based financial system.

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

• Nature and biodiversity have rapidly risen up the sustainability agenda in recent years, becoming a mainstream theme in sustainable finance. ICMA’s Sustainable Bonds for Nature: A Practitioner’s Guide creates a new sub-label – “Nature Bond” – for green bonds that exclusively finance nature-related projects, alongside detailed guidance on nature-related projects and KPIs (for SLBs).   
• The guidance distinguishes between bonds that exclusively finance nature-related projects, to which the sub-label “Nature Bond” may be applied, and nature-themed green bonds which finance nature-related projects alongside other environmental objectives such as climate mitigation.
• Our analysis finds that few bonds allocate proceeds exclusively to the two UoP project categories that ICMA identifies as explicitly promoting nature-related outcomes – terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity conservation and sustainable management of living natural resources and land use.
• Of the Sustainable Fitch-rated instruments featuring sustainable management of living natural resources and land use, just 1% allocate all proceeds to this UoP, while no bonds allocate 100% of proceeds to terrestrial and aquatic biodiversity conservation. This suggests “Nature Bonds” may remain a niche category of labelled debt.   
• That said, the total amount of financing allocated to these categories across all bonds with these UoPs is not immaterial, USD72 billion, according to our database of labelled instruments, indicating GSS bonds have a potentially significant role to play in meeting the financing goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework.

A key highlight of 2024 was the publication of our engagement & escalation policy, which formalised the process for implementing escalation measures. Additionally, the automated reporting feature from Maanch Ltd. was enhanced, and the ability to track our voting activities within the tool was added, aiding us in our reporting efforts.

Focal Points:

See p4 of the report

Parameters:

• Data to: 31 Dec 2024
• Published: Filed with the French Financial Markets Authority (AMF) on 28 May 2025
• Materiality Matrix: Alstom’s Materiality Matrix (2021) is publicly available in PDF format on its website.
  ESG data centre: KPIs and targets are provided in web tables/PDFs.

Focal Points:

"In 2024, Konecranes expanded its emissions reduction ambition by committing to setting long-term net-zero targets.

We also received our fourth straight Gold rating from EcoVadis, a world-leading business sustainability rating agency, for our sustainability efforts.

EcoVadis ranked Konecranes’ sustainability work in the top 2 percent of all rated companies globally, and in the top 1 percent of general-purpose machinery peers.

We also updated our Supplier Code of Conduct, to which thousands of our suppliers commit, to include emissions reporting-related requirements and more robust human rights management"

Parameters:

• Data to: 31 Dec 2024
• Published: Annual Report 2024 with ESRS-compliant Sustainability Statement published Feb 28, 2025
  Materiality Matrix: Sustainability governance pages refer to validating materiality; the Annual Report
• contains sustainability disclosures under ESRS (materiality-based).
• ESG data centre: KPIs and targets are provided in web tables/PDFs.

Focal Points:

• 29% reduction in GHGs from own operations
• 9 prorammes providing medicines to people in need

Parameters:

• Data to: 31 Dec 2024
• Published: May 2025
• Materiality Matrix: Yes in Progress report
• ESG data centre: ESG/“Healthy Future” Progress Reports are provided as concise web pages and downloadable PDFs; IR also hosts Sustainability-Linked Bonds materials.

This brief provides an analysis of the benchmark progress made by 50 of the largest public companies in the food and agriculture sector in North America engaged in the Food Emissions 50 initiative.

The Food Emissions 50 Company Benchmark measures corporate progress toward tackling climate risk in the food sector and accelerating the transition to a lower-emissions economy. Companies are assessed based on the quality of their emissions disclosures, reduction goals, and climate transition action plans....

"Plastic pollution is harming our ecosystems, economies and impacting every corner of the environment. Tackling the plastics crisis starts with transparency. Disclosure is key for companies to understand their plastics footprint, manage risk, and build business resilience in the transition to a circular economy.

Download our infographic to explore insights from CDP's 2024 plastics disclosure data, revealing how momentum for corporate action is building and how leading companies are using disclosure to get ahead."

Environmental risk is financial risk, and the costs are accelerating. Ignoring the risks will cost the global economy up to US$38 trillion by 2050 – more than a third of global GDP.

What does this mean for the average business?

In short, your bottom line.

Environmental damage is impacting financial performance. For example, the European Union’s agriculture sector is already losing €28 billion each year as a result of extreme weather. These costs are set to grow as the environmental crisis becomes more acute.

Tackling these risks head-on will create a more resilient economy and increase companies’ ability to innovate and invest. New markets, goods and services are enabling businesses to thrive in uncertain times.

Building resilience to these urgent environmental issues now, and in the future, means three things: raising awareness of exposure, acting on the risks, and seizing the opportunities.

Greg Wasserman, Head of Private Climate Investing, profiles innovation in climate venture capital. He emphasizes automation's potential in farming and manufacturing and addresses generative AI's targeted use cases amid market hype.

Key highlights:

• Net zero carbon target: Our progress on our net zero carbon commitment by 2040
  Energy efficiency: Achieved our target to reduce energy intensity by 30% by 2025 (brought forward from 2030)
• High energy performance: 216 buildings with high-energy performance demonstrated by ENERGY STAR, NABERS certification, or EPC ratings of A or B
• Social highlights: A look into our U.S. strategic engagement platform, EU social value framework and the sustainability summits we hold across Europe & APAC
• Case studies and property spotlights: A selection of our high energy performance assets across the globe
• Housing affordability: Over 30,000 affordable housing units supplied across 49 metropolitan statistical areas in the U.S.

"This summer we’re reflecting on the wide range of sustainability topics covered on our blog so far this year. Whether you’re heading for a coastal break, or packing sunscreen for an inland trip, travel often highlights sustainability considerations.

Here are three topics we’ve addressed on the blog that resonate with this time of year:

• Read more: How shipping seeks to reduce its carbon footprint | AllianzGI 
• Read more: Setting the foundation for safer cosmetics | AllianzGI 
• Read more: Why now is the time to double down on engagement | AllianzGI 

A rules-based fixed income approach

The role of fixed income in financing the transition should not be underestimated. Many investors have taken an ‘equity first’ approach when considering their sustainability objectives. However, climate risk is not exclusive to equities and can impact other asset class exposures, so they need to be considered. For investors, the role of fixed income for climate aware investors is also important given that bonds can play an important role in stabilizing returns in multi-asset portfolios.

Investors are increasingly using fixed income rules-based strategies as they seek to mitigate climate risk and take advantage climate-related opportunities. These strategies, similar to their equity equivalent, are designed to assess current and expected carbon emissions, the likelihood of companies meeting carbon targets, and apply qualitative overlays.

A rules-based strategy can offer investors a comprehensive approach to climate investing and account for the complexities and nuances of a corporate fixed income universe.

• Date: 16 September 2025
• Location: Online
• Times: Start 14:00 / End 14:30

BMW will unveil their new EV at the IAA – a launch that will set the direction of their electrification strategy for the next five years.

Join Carbon Tracker for a concise, 30-minute briefing on BMW’s IAA announcements and what they mean for the next phase of its EV strategy. We’ll connect the headlines from Europe’s biggest automotive event with insights from our latest report, Financial & Climate Alignment: BMW, and leave plenty of time for your questions.

It is far from clear that the economic drawbacks of population aging are as intractable as they are commonly depicted, according to Goldman Sachs Research economists.

Although rising public sector pension costs remain a concern for some economies, the most effective means of counteracting the impact of aging on dependency ratios is to extend working lives, they write. Fortunately, this trend is already in motion. 

Despite the large decline in DM working-age ratios that has already taken place, DM dependency ratios have actually fallen. This trend towards extending working lives shows little sign of abating and is taking place in countries with minimal changes to pension laws, suggesting an adaptive response to increased longevity.

This insight looks at recent Health Care industry underperformance in the context of its performance in the post-Covid period. It explores the idea that US policy uncertainty may be an additional short-term drag on the industry not just in the US but globally as well.

• The global Health Care industry has steeply underperformed regional equity indices over the last two years and notably since the outcome of the US presidential elections in November 2024. The industry has faced several headwinds, but US healthcare policy uncertainty is the latest.
• Both US and other developed Health Care industries have high dependency on US revenues and have lagged their benchmarks, likely due to exposure to US policy uncertainty. The FTSE Emerging Health Care industry has been more protected, possibly because its revenues are less dependent directly on the US.
• From a sector standpoint, Pharma & Biotech and Medical Devices & Equipment derive a larger proportion of their revenues from the US market than Health Care Providers and are therefore more sensitive to US healthcare policy and trade barriers. This is reflected in these sectors’ relative performance since October 2024.
• The performance differences we have seen between several developed and emerging Health Care industries, and between Health Care sectors during October 2024-June 2025, combined with these regions and sectors’ revenue exposure to the US market, suggest that US healthcare policy uncertainty may have been an additional headwind for the industry during this period.

Renewables: from skepticism to scale

In the last 20 years, utility-scale wind and solar projects in the US have navigated a barrage of challenges:

• Tax credit expirations and eleventh-hour renewals
• Grassroots opposition and local permitting battles
• Tariffs on imported solar panels and raw materials
• Financial collapses of high-profile players
• Misinformation campaigns against renewables
• Global supply chain disruptions due to COVID-19 and geopolitical tensions
• Negative headlines around upstream and downstream pollution

At various points during this period, market commentators and investors have declared the renewable energy industry dead. Yet each episode of ‘doom and gloom’ was followed not by a decline, but by a strong recovery and accelerated growth. What was framed as existential risk often turned into a catalyst for adaptation and reinvention.

The transition to clean power is the most critical step in closing the emissions gap by 2030. According to the IPCC, in pathways compatible with limiting global warming to 1.5°C, phasing out fossil-based electricity generation accounts for approximately 40% of emission reductions in the 2020s, while expanding clean electricity to other sectors contributes to another 10%. This means that about half of the emissions reductions needed by 2030 depend on decarbonising the power sector.  

Nonetheless, the transition to clean power is not without its challenges. The endeavour to increase the integration of Variable Renewable Energy (VRE) sources to curtail greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions is complicated by the need to synchronise energy demand and supply effectively.

• The number of controlled firms has risen over the last decade, and they are now the most common ownership type by count in the MSCI ACWI Index, ahead of widely held firms and those with a principal shareholder.
• Controlled firms underperformed widely held peers and those with a principal shareholder on a five- and 10-year total-shareholder-return basis, after controlling for a firm’s size and sector and market development.
• These differences in financial performance suggest that investors may benefit from evaluating corporate ownership as part of their investment analysis. 

The radical switch in US policies led to a turbulent 2025 proxy voting season, as investors get to grips with tariff dynamics, a change in tone on ESG topics, and changing stewardship rules.

Summary

• Annual voting season dominated by unfolding US impact on ESG issues
• Robeco voted against management on at least one proposal 59% of the time
• Corporate governance and executive pay remain the most contested issues

"In 2024, we completed over 130 dedicated ESG engagements, while the majority of the 942 broader engagements conducted by our research analysts with debt issuers also included some form of ESG dialogue."

Highlights, key figures and significant developments (1 April 2024 to 31 March 2025)

- Priorities for 2025-2026
- Invest – how we invest sustainably for our clients and integrate environmental, social and governance factors
- Advocate – how we use our voice in the markets to advocate for positive change among investors, companies and policymakers
- Inhabit – how we aim to inhabit our own ecosystem in a manner that ensures a sustainable future for all

SSE has published its Annual Report for 2025, offering a comprehensive view of the company’s performance over the past financial year. Alongside the Sustainability Report 2025, the publication provides insight into how SSE is delivering its financial goals and its broader responsibilities to society and the environment.

The report details progress on the company’s £17.5bn Net Zero Acceleration Programme Plus, which is enabling the UK’s transition to a cleaner, more secure energy system. From building world-class renewable energy assets to reinforcing critical electricity networks and investing in flexible generation, SSE is playing a central role as the UK and Ireland’s clean energy champion.

Understanding different motives for sustainable finance is probably the biggest reason behind the confusion around ESG.

"Sustainable and responsible investing continues to grow, and with that, it gets questioned, challenged, glorified, vilified and even ridiculed, and increasingly so in the public domain. There is nothing wrong with critique; we, the sustainable finance professionals, should be able to take and respond to the inevitable hype that young industries are prone to. 

However, it is crucial to understand that sustainable finance is not a one-size-fits-all concept. There are various motivations and drivers, each offering unique techniques, benefits and perspectives. Trying to conduct your approach with the wrong tool or framework for another motivation is a recipe for disaster.

Instead, delving into the various drivers of sustainable finance and shedding light on the diverse factors influencing sustainable and responsible investment decisions will alleviate some of the confusion in the market. It will also help you understand why I am keen on asking simple questions." 

"This year’s World Day Against Child Labour is an important marker, as the elimination of child labour in all its forms by 2025 was a fundamental goal enshrined in Target 8.7 of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs).

Although there has been genuine progress – with 86 million fewer children now in child labour than a quarter of a century ago – the most recent UN estimates showed that 160 million children were still engaged in child labour at the start of this decade. Of these, almost half were involved in hazardous work threatening health, safety and moral development.

This trend is mirrored by the latest data from our Child Labour Index (CLI). While 49 countries have seen a significant improvement on the index since 2020, 115 – including major emerging economies like India, Brazil, Mexico and Indonesia – remain within the ‘high’ or ‘very high’ risk categories (the two highest in the CLI). At the same time, progress on combatting child labour has stalled, or even reversed, in several advanced economies. Risks remain particularly high in globally significant sectors that are central to supply chains, such as agriculture, mining and manufacturing, according to our Industry Risk Data."

Key Information
Date:
16 September 2025
Time:
09:00 - 11:00 EDT (UTC-4)
Location:
Downtown Boston, Massachusetts, USA

FAIRR will host an in-person roundtable in Boston, bringing together investors for a knowledge-building and sharing session focused on water-related risks and opportunities, particularly those impacting the U.S. agriculture sector.

Water scarcity, pollution, and water quality are increasingly recognised as material financial risks across the global food system. This session will explore how these issues are manifesting in North American agriculture and why they require greater investor attention.

FAIRR’s technical experts will present investment-relevant insights from our latest thematic research, with a particular focus on the financial materiality of water risks. Attendees will gain a clearer understanding of how FAIRR’s data and tools can help identify risk exposure and vulnerabilities within investment portfolios.

ESG investing appears to have hit a major roadblock.

Donald Trump’s return to the White House has set off a fierce backlash against the use of environmental, social and governance (ESG) principles in investment.

In the US, a growing number of large financial institutions including BlackRock, Fidelity and JP Morgan are paring back their climate and social commitments.

Many American investors have also voted with their wallets. US ESG-labelled funds have suffered nine consecutive quarters of outflows; in the final three months of 2024 alone, some USD4.3 billion was pulled from such vehicles, double the amount seen the previous quarter...

"Taking an active approach to engagement is a core part of our service and complements our investment analysis, as we aim to create and preserve long-term value for our clients.

Our engagement action plan for 2024 was ambitious, spanning three priority projects on climate, nature and health. We also had a range of secondary projects underway, focused on issues such as access to medicine, human rights due diligence in supply chains, plastics and animal welfare. 

The report also introduces our engagement priorities for 2025, which lie under three broad themes of climate, nature and human rights and we outline our secondary focus areas which include circular economy, workforce and access to medicine..."

Rob Rowe talks with Alternative & Renewable Energy Analyst Vikram Bagri about the role of renewables in meeting the energy needs of the world.

They touch on tariffs and other implications of U.S. policy, dependence on China, the innovation under way in the nuclear space, and the overall market environment for renewables.

In this episode, the hosts speak to Caspar Herzberg, CEO of AVEVA, a UK-based software company and SMI member.

“It’s not the time to retreat on climate,” Caspar says. “The solutions exist today that can keep us on the path to net-zero, and now we need to focus on scaling these through digitization and adoption.”

Caspar outlines the technology solutions that are supporting decarbonization efforts across sectors. He also talks about the role AI can play in driving efficiency and boosting the business case for sustainability.

“At the end of the day, sustainability is only going to work when you are profitable,” he says. “Otherwise, businesses won’t do it.”

The global energy conversation is shifting. While decarbonisation remains a critical goal, the urgency of energy security has taken centre stage.

Geopolitical tensions, supply chain realignments, and surging electricity demand are reshaping how nations think about power – and where they get it from....

"The landscape for sustainable investing has become fragmented and complex.

... the Morgan Stanley Sustainability team filters the noise and shares our view of 5 key themes that we believe will influence the long-term direction of sustainable investing":

• Transition requires investment, not divestment
• Diversity & inclusion is not tokenism, it is financially relevant
• Sustainable supply must be accompanied by reduced demand
• Investors are already exposed to nature but it needs to be valued properly
• Climate resilience is an economic imperative

Part 1: Addressing investor challenges

Financial authorities can play an important role in building a stable, sustainable financial system that rewards long-term responsible investment, to the benefit of investors’ clients and beneficiaries and the environment and society as a whole. This Sustainable Investment Policy Toolkit explores this topic in two parts which are published separately. Part one of this two-part report provides an updated framework analysing sustainable finance policy approaches. It examines:

• the challenges faced by investors^[1] in scaling up responsible investment in line with their duties and obligations to address system-level sustainability-related risks and support a just economic transition;
• financial authorities’ sustainability-related policy ambitions observed across the G20 countries; and
• the policy measures that financial authorities can implement to:
  • create an enabling environment for responsible investors;
  • fulfil their mandates; and
  • respond to emerging, sustainability-related government goals and related risks, opportunities and impacts.

Part two (published separately) provides deep dives into specific policy measures identified in part one.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

• "Nuclear energy’s global resurgence is boosted by the need to reconcile competing demands for energy security, reliability and decarbonisation.
• Investors should stay focused on reality amid the hype about new nuclear technologies.
• We expect sustained policy support to provide a structural tailwind.
• Traditional nuclear power’s value chain is offering some compelling opportunities."

Understanding whether sustainability risk can materially affect risk-adjusted returns — beyond what can be explained by traditional financial metrics — is critical for credit investors to account for all the relevant risk and return drivers in their investment process.

We evaluate a decade of data (from January 2015 to December 2024) to assess whether bond issuers’ sustainability characteristics offered additional explanatory power for credit risk and performance — especially after controlling for traditional factors such as duration, credit quality and liquidity.

Sustainability section from p57

Focal Points:

See p5, including -9% GHG emissions from baseline

Parameters:

• Data to: 31 Dec 2024
• Published: March 2025 (assurance date)
• Materiality Matrix: See page 12
• ESG data centre: Not found

"Clean Edge is excited to announce the release of the 2025 Clean Edge 100, our second annual ranking of the 100 top publicly traded clean-tech companies in clean energy, transportation, water, and the grid. Against the backdrop of a rapidly shifting policy, energy, and tech landscape, our latest update finds global industry leadership continues to be concentrated in the U.S. and China."

"How we rank companies: Eligible companies are members of our global equity research universe of more than 650 companies, and the rankings only include companies that are determined to receive 50% or more of their revenue from clean-tech activities (pure plays). Companies are ranked according to an equally weighted composite of market capitalization, revenue, and operating profit. Revenue and operating profit are adjusted by business exposure as evaluated by Clean Edge."

View Geographic & Sector Breakdown

"Clean Edge is excited to announce the release of the 2025 Clean Edge 100, our second annual ranking of the 100 top publicly traded clean-tech companies in clean energy, transportation, water, and the grid. Against the backdrop of a rapidly shifting policy, energy, and tech landscape, our latest update finds global industry leadership continues to be concentrated in the U.S. and China."

"How we rank companies: Eligible companies are members of our global equity research universe of more than 650 companies, and the rankings only include companies that are determined to receive 50% or more of their revenue from clean-tech activities (pure plays). Companies are ranked according to an equally weighted composite of market capitalization, revenue, and operating profit. Revenue and operating profit are adjusted by business exposure as evaluated by Clean Edge."

View Geographic & Sector Breakdown

EM Sustainability Bonds Among Best-in-Class on Impact, DM Bonds Lead on Disclosure

• EMs Have Preference Towards Sustainability Bonds, Mixed Disclosure on Impact
• Metrics Indicate Higher Impact from EM Sustainability Bonds and DM Green Bonds
• Substantial Differences in Sustainable Finance Landscape in EMs relative to DMs
• Impact Analysis: In EM, SSAs Lead in Disclosure Rate Notably in Sustainability Bonds and Emissions Metrics

Strategic emphasis on manufacturing and supply chains

... includes ...

Structure of Green Finance Endorsed Project Catalogue (2025 Edition)

Clearer examples of activity eligibility and reporting guidelines could encourage labelled debt issuance from more sectors

Enabling activities must demonstrate a clear necessity in facilitating core green activities, avoid perpetuating carbon-intensive systems and yield quantifiable end-use environmental benefits.

ICMA provides a checklist with non-exhaustive examples of eligible and non-eligible activities.  These  provisions can likely help to minimise  the  potential mislabelling  and  misuse  of  enabling activities  and  ensure  that  only  genuinely necessary  and impactful  activities  are  recognised  in green project assessments and, thus, eligible for labelled debt financing.

Labelled bond issuance fell 25% year on year in 1H25, with market share dropping to 10.2% of global debt. Macroeconomic and regulatory uncertainty continue to weigh on volumes, though supranationals and sustainability bonds are areas of relative resilience. Issuers appear to be favouring established labels as the market recalibrates.

... includes ...

• Market Uncertainty Weighs on Labelled Bond Issuance
• SSAs Lead in Labelled Debt and Impact Reporting
• EU Disclosure Landscape Undergoes Major Shift
• Data Centres in Focus
• Market Expands with New Labels and Standards

Sustainability statement from p52

Sustainability information also in 2024 annual report. [NB Deutsche Post AG, trades as DHL Group]

Sustainability report from p38

Key Takeaways

• The speed of electric vehicle adoption is varying by region. China is leading the way with rapid growth. Europe is picking up pace with sales up 30% in 2025 relative to 2024, but the US is lagging.
• High prices have hampered growth, but advances in battery technology and production efficiency gains mean costs are expected to decrease by 20% by 2027. Near-parity with combustion engine vehicles is on the horizon.
• In China and Europe there is strong policy support for electric vehicles – China has extended its $11bn cash-for-clunkers scheme. There is less impetus in the US from a policy perspective.
• Chinese automakers are well placed to capture market share – a function of their technological and cost advantages. We are looking to tap into related opportunities in select portfolios.

September 11, 2025
2:00 p.m. BST London
Location: Virtual Platform

About this event

"During New York Climate Week last year, MSCI released The State of Integrity in the Global Carbon Credit Market, a landmark report that offered public insight into findings from over 4,000 independently rated carbon credit projects worldwide. While low-integrity projects remain prevalent, we observed encouraging signals: early signs of improvement and a growing premium for high-integrity credits.

A year later, new developments, from policy momentum to shifting buyer expectations, are reshaping the landscape. What has changed? What role can each stakeholder play to strengthen market trust and scale real impact?

Join MSCI for this essential webinar, where we’ll present key updates from our 2025 analysis, highlight new report from the OECD on the role of government in enhancing integrity, and convene a multi-stakeholder panel of buyers, developers, investors, policy experts and rating agencies."

In this new report, for which Profundo conducted research, ActionAid UK investigates the costs to people and the planet resulting from HSBC’s financing of fossil fuel and industrial agriculture industries. In the period 2021-2023, this report finds that HSBC provided £153 billion in financial flows to fossil fuel and industrial agriculture sectors.

As a result of these financial flows, HSBC has generated 357 million tons of Carbon dioxide equivalent (CO2e). The societal costs of these emissions – using the Societal Costs of Carbon methodology - are calculated at £128 billion in climate damages, equivalent to three times HSBC’s accumulated net profit in this period.

JobPost: M&G - Sustainability Manager – Sustainable Investment Frameworks (London, close 7 Sept)

• Program Associate, The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance

  Climate Finance Intern

  Partnerships Lead | The Global Innovation Lab for Climate Finance

  Analyst - ClimateShot Investor Coalition (CLIC) / Agri-Food Systems, Africa.

  Manager - Agri-Food Systems, Africa

  Call For Applications: India Clean Energy Finance

   

JobPost: Aviva  - ESG Fixed Income Analyst (London, close unknown)

The ESG Analyst is a key member of our dynamic in-house team responsible for evaluating current and potential portfolio investments and leveraging active ownership strategies — including company engagement, proxy voting, and public policy — to advance sustainable business practices. We seek experienced and accomplished candidates with exceptional research and analytical capabilities, superior communication and relationship management skills, and the ability to effectively manage time and deliver multiple projects with keen insight and attention to detail. 

JobPost: Chanel - Senior Manager – Climate & Nature Impact Performance (Fixed-term, Maternity Cover) (London, close 30 Sept)

ShareAction’s Banking Standards team works towards holding financial institutions accountable for their impact on climate change. We have a history of campaigning on key aspects of banks’ climate strategies—such as their emission reduction targets or fossil fuel policies—and we are gradually expanding our work to include other sustainability themes and banking regulation. We have achieved significant wins, such as contributing to HSBC becoming the world’s largest bank to cease financing for new oil and gas fields, Barclays dramatically reducing its oil sands financing, and mobilising investors to call on Societe Generale to set a renewable energy target.

The team is structured around two main pillars: our campaigning and research pillar. The research pillar ensures that the team’s campaigning and advocacy work is based on sound analysis and facts. The Senior Research Manager oversees the research pillar, currently composed of three more junior researchers. The Senior Research Manager is responsible for developing and implementing a research strategy that underpins campaign needs for analysis and insight in line with campaign timelines and available resources. They oversee and contribute to the delivery of high-quality research outputs, including thematic reports, investor briefings, surveys of Europe’s largest banks, and ensure that they are underpinned by clear and robust research methodologies. Alongside the Head of Banking Programme and the Senior Campaign Manager, they act as an ambassador for the team in external forums, the media, and when meeting with and presenting to external stakeholders, including banks, civil society organisations, and investors.

Key responsibilities are detailed in the Job Description in the downloadable Candidate Pack.

If this role sounds like something that would build on your current skill set and engage you, we’d love to hear from you!

Applications will be reviewed regularly, and this advert may close earlier than stated if a suitable candidate is identified. You are therefore encouraged to apply as soon as you can. Previous applicants should not re-apply.

Apply below

Employment Type - Contract - Please note, where PRI has an office there is an expectation to work a minimum of 2 days per week
Location Hybrid · London, City of, UK
Team IIC
Seniority Mid-level
Closing: 8:00pm, 22nd Aug 2025 BST

JobPost: ShareAction - Senior Engagement Manager - Investor Engagement (London, close unknown)

JobPost: Goldman Sachs - Asset & Wealth Management, Sustainability & Impact, Value Creation, Associate - New York

See links below for further details and to apply

Account Manager, Fundraising

Senior Sponsorship Specialist, Events (8 Month Fixed Term Contract)

Senior Associate, Events (8 Month Fixed Term Contract)

JobPost: Bloomberg - Senior Sustainability Analyst, Reporting & Data - Global Sustainability Office (NYC, close unknown)

JobPost: Mondelez - ESG Data & Digital Manager (various global locations)

The Senior Engagement Manager role will sit within the Investor engagement (IE) team. The IE team is responsible for challenging asset managers and asset owners on their responsible investment practices (climate, biodiversity, social…), socialising ShareAction research relevant to advancing responsible investment standards, as well as coordinating investor engagement and outreach across the organisation.

ShareAction intends to develop an ambitious engagement strategy with asset owners to persuade them to lead and drive change across the investment and stewardship chain. One of the main focus area will be engagement with UK and EU pension funds, aimed at mobilising them to drive greater ambition through the investment system by setting high expectations of their asset managers and holding them to account for the quality and ambition of their stewardship activity, including by moving mandates where appropriate.

The role involves establishing high-calibre relationships with senior decision-makers at mainly UK and European asset owners. These relationships are developed through regular dialogue via individual meetings, roundtables or webinars, exploring the application and evolution of responsible investment standards across selected thematic areas. The impact of this dialogue will rest upon the role holder working closely with colleagues across the organisation to leverage ShareAction’s expertise across workstreams.

The Senior Engagement Manager will also support the development of ShareAction’s responsible investment standards for institutional investors, working closely with the Head of Investor Engagement and Senior Research Manager to produce research on key thematic issues. They will lead engagement with investors to gather input, shape recommendations, and drive adoption of higher standards across the investment system.

If this role sounds like something that would build on your current skill set and engage you, we’d love to hear from you!

Deadline for applications: 9:00 a.m. on Monday 4th August