Douglass Guernsey, Shareholder Advocate at Green Century Capital Management, outlines how supermajority voting challenges asset managers and their fiduciary duty. Investors know that environmental risks like climate change, deforestation and biodiversity loss pose threats to portfolios. But, as this autumn’s attempt by JBS to list on the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) shows, there is another serious, existential governance threat…
Fidelity to Vote Against Companies That Don’t Meet Deforestation-Related Expectations
Investment management firm Fidelity International announced the publication of its Nature Roadmap, outlining the company’s approach to the integration of nature in its sustainable investments and stewardship processes, and setting a series of commitments including a pledge to begin voting against companies that fail to meet expectations on deforestation-related practices and disclosure from 2024. The new voting policy follows the…
Danske Bank AM Appoints Mads Steinmüller as Head of New Climate and Nature Team
Danske Bank Asset Management announced the launch of a new team climate and nature team, advising and supporting the firm’s investment teams in making decisions based on the risks and opportunities related to nature and biodiversity. The team will be led by the firm’s chief ESG specialist, Mads Steinmüller, who has been appointed to the new position of Head of…
Nuveen Appoints Nick Moss as Head of Nature Based Solutions
Investment manager Nuveen announced today the appointment of Nick Moss as Head of Nature Based Solutions within its land-focused asset management platform, Nuveen Natural Capital (NNC). Based in London, Moss will be responsible for driving NNC’s nature based solutions investment strategy across farmland, forestry and ecological restoration, with a focus on reducing the environmental impact and carbon footprint of commercial…
Moody’s Launches Assessments of Corporate Decarbonization Plans
Credit ratings, research, and risk analysis provider Moody’s Investors Service announced today the launch of a framework for Net Zero Assessments (NZAs), a new scoring system aimed at enabling investors to evaluate and compare companies’ decarbonization plans and actions. According to Brian Cahill, Global Head of ESG at Moody’s Investors Service, the new NZAs aim to address the challenges facing…
GRI, IFRS Announce Initiative to Help Companies Build Sustainability Reporting Capacity
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) announced today plans to launch a new Sustainability Innovation Lab (SIL), alongside the IFRS Foundation as its Convening Partner, a new initiative aimed at helping to enable companies to meet evolving sustainability disclosure requirements. According to GRI CEO Eelco van der Enden, the new initiative comes as companies face a “sustainability capacity and expertise gap”…
High Cost of Decarbonization, ‘Green on Green’ Conflicts Holding Back Progress on Global Net Zero Goals: KPMG Report
Despite progress on scaling up low carbon energy production and industrial technologies, significant barriers remain in the way of the global ambition to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 and to limit temperature rise 1.5°C, with current initiatives insufficient to meet these climate goals, according to a new report by global professional services firm KPMG. Key challenges holding back progress…