The European Council announced on Monday that it has reached an agreement on new rules aimed at strengthening regulations on emissions standards for new heavy-duty vehicles such as trucks, buses and trailers, including a requirement for a 90% emissions reduction by 2040, and also aimed at encouraging an increasing share of zero emission vehicles in the heavy duty fleet. The…

HSBC Asset Management has added to its suite of thematic ETF offerings with the launch of its Climate Technology ETF, in partnership with index provider Nasdaq. The HSBC Nasdaq Global Climate Tech UCITS ETF will track the Nasdaq CTA Global Climate Technology Index, aiming to offer investors broad exposure to the climate technology ecosystem through a future-focused thematic technology developed…

Last month’s launch of the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) represents a significant milestone for risk management and opportunity that perhaps couldn’t have been envisaged just three years ago. This ground-breaking initiative, akin to the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), is likely to transform the way investors assess and manage risks associated with nature and biodiversity in…

What should a biodiversity fund look like? It’s a question that’s going to attract increasing attention with the recent Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures hopefully opening the door to better data from companies on their impact on nature (or at the very least, nature’s impact on them). The number of mutual and exchange-traded funds focused on biodiversity has grown significantly…

Nikko Asset Management (Nikko AM) has today expanded its green bond range with the launch of a new Article 9 fund. The Luxembourg-domiciled Nikko AM Global Green Bond UCITS fund provides investors access to green and sustainability bonds through a diversified and actively managed portfolio.  It will invest in a broader investment universe beyond sovereign, supranational, and agency green bonds,…

In the ever-evolving landscape of sustainable finance, European fund groups have been wrestling with a perplexing question: Which sustainability disclosure pathway under the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) should they tread? Article 6, 8, or 9? Do they actually have a choice, given that these aren’t fund classifications, and the criteria have undergone more twists and turns than a suspenseful…

Just last month, Hong Kong was hit by an exceptionally heavy rainstorm, which prompted the government to issue the Black Rain warning signal for a record breaking 16 hours.  Authorities said that more than 158 millimetres of rainfall was recorded by the Hong Kong Observatory in the hour after the warning was raised, the highest since records began in 1884….

Leading construction and mining equipment, engine, turbine and locomotive manufacturer Caterpillar announced today the appointment of George Moubayed as Chief Sustainability and Strategy Officer. Moubayed has been with Caterpillar for over 25 years, joining the company in 1997 as a marketing representative. Most recently, he has been serving as Senior Vice President, responsible for the Enterprise Strategy Division, overseeing the…

Chrysler, Dodge, Jeep, and Citroen parent Stellantis and South Korean battery maker Samsung SDI announced today that they will build a U.S. battery manufacturing gigafactory in the U.S., with the selection of Kokomo, Indiana for the new site. The new project is anticipated to include an investment of more than $3.2 billion. The announcement follows the formation of the StarPlus…

Geothermal heating and cooling technology company Bedrock Energy announced that it has raised $8.5 million in seed capital, with proceeds from the financing to be used to advance its solutions to help decarbonize real estate with carbon-free HVAC systems. Buildings are a significant contributor to global GHG emissions, and one of the hardest to replace, given their long-term nature. Overall,…