The government of Japan announced the completion of its first-ever Climate Transition Bond offering, raising JPY800 billion (USD$5.3 billion) in proceeds aimed at funding efforts to support the country’s transformation to a carbon neutral economy, with a particular focus on decarbonizing hard-to-abate industrial sectors. The issuance of the 10-year bond marks the first tranche in a planned $11 billion transition…

AXA Investment Managers has launched a global bond fund aimed at decarbonisation, with investment consulting firm Aon providing seed capital of £127m. The fund, dubbed the AXA ACT Carbon Transition Global Short Duration Bond fund, will be led by Nicolas Trindade, who currently manages near £2bn for AXA IM in global and sterling liquid fixed income funds. The actively-managed fund…

It’s little over a month since provisional agreement was reached on the text of the highly anticipated Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). Since then, the pace quickened, with the EU releasing a final draft in the past few days, in anticipation of a ratification vote, only to have the brakes applied after Estonia, Finland, Germany and Italy signalled their…

Climate solutions company Rimere announced a $10 million strategic investment from renewable natural gas (RNG) provider Clean Energy Fuels, with proceeds aimed at advancing Rimere’s solutions to convert methane and natural gas into sustainable materials, including clean hydrogen. Founded in 2020, Rimere’s sequential hybrid plasma technology breaks apart methane molecules for reconfiguration into cleaner alternatives. The company’s solutions include Reformer,…

Investment giant BlackRock announced the expansion of its Voting Choice program for the first time to individual investors, extending the program to retail investors representing approximately $200 billion assets in its iShares Core S&P 500 ETF. The move opens up the program enabling investors to control their own proxy voting choices to over three million shareholder accounts of the S&P…

Microsoft and carbon dioxide removal (CDR) solutions provider Neustark announced today a multi-year offtake agreement, with Neustark providing Microsoft with credits from the removal of biogenic carbon from biogas plants for storage in recycled construction materials. Founded in 2019, Switzerland-based Neustark’s technology uses recycled materials such as concrete from demolished buildings as permanent storage for the CO₂ removed from the…

Liontrust has added investment analyst Connor Godsell and equity analyst Linnea Bengtsson to its sustainable investment team, to its now 18-strong team. Peter Michaelis is head of the team, which includes seven members with a fixed income focus. Godsell will join the Edinburgh office while Bengtsson will be based in London. See also: – Liontrust’s Michaelis: ‘Reporting only gets you…

Stewart Investors has announced the launch of the Responsible Minerals Initiative (RMI) Investor Network, a collaborative engagement project of which it is founding member. The network brings together investment industry stakeholders to advance responsible sourcing and mining by giving investors access to due diligence tools and collaborative opportunities. Reflective of Stewart Investors’ commitment to promoting sustainable development, the network will…

Power grid orchestration software provider Camus Energy announced today the closing of a $10 million extension to its Series A funding, bringing the total raised in the round to $25 million, with proceeds aimed at supporting the growth of its solutions to enable grid operators to address booming electricity demand. Founded in 2019 by CEO Astrid Atkinson, CTO Cody Smith…

Microsoft announced today the addition of a series of new data and AI solutions to its sustainability platform, Microsoft Cloud for Sustainability, including tools aimed at enabling users to access faster ESG data analytics and insights, improve sustainability data management and reporting, and collect and analyze data across the value chain. Microsoft unveiled its Cloud for Sustainability platform in 2021, focused on enabling…