Swiss banking and financial services group UBS announced today that it has decided to withdraw from the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), becoming the first major European bank outside of the UK to exit the UN-backed coalition dedicated to advancing global net zero goals through their financing activities. UBS’ announcement marks a new blow to the NZBA, accelerating the departure of…
The Financial Conduct Authority (FCA), the UK’s conduct regulator for financial services firms and financial markets, announced plans to streamline and improve its sustainability reporting framework for asset managers, life insurers and pension providers, including examining how to simplify disclosure requirements and ease regulatory burdens on firms. The announcement follows a review carried out by the FCA of the results…
Rolls-Royce and clean fuels startup INERATEC announced a strategic partnership aimed at decarbonizing backup power systems for data centers by replacing fossil diesel with climate-neutral e-fuels. INERATEC was founded in 2016 and produces sustainable e-fuels and synthetic chemicals to replace fossil crude oil. The company builds modular chemical plants for “Power-to-X” Power-to-X and gas-to-liquid applications, which use hydrogen from renewable…
J.P. Morgan’s specialist asset management business Mansart has launched the J.P. Morgan Mansart iCubed Global Equity Select Fund, a new fund aimed at providing exposure to developed market equities, while delivering substantially enhanced sustainability characteristics and maintaining low tracking error to its parent universe. The new fund will track the Solactive iCubed Global Sustainability Index, designed by index developer Solactive…
Alternative asset manager Blackstone announced an agreement to acquire data analytics energy intelligence platform Enverus, from private equity investors Hellman & Friedman and Genstar Capital. Hellman & Friedman acquired a majority stake in Enverus from Genstar in 2021, at a valuation of $4.25 billion. While terms of the Blackstone acquisition were not released, a Bloomberg report citing people familiar with the…
Energy giant bp, and JERA, Japan’s largest power generation company, announced the completion of JERA Nex bp, combining each companies’ offshore wind assets to form a new equally-owned renewable joint venture. According to the companies, the new joint venture has a net potential generating capacity of 13GW, which would establish it as one of the largest offshore wind developers, owners…
China’s financial regulators announced the publication of the Green Finance Endorsed Project Catalogue, creating a new categorization system to determine which economic activities are eligible to be funded by green financial products. Released by the People’s Bank of China (PBOC), the National Financial Regulatory Administration and the China Securities Regulatory Commission, the new catalogue has been developed to be uniformly…
Canaccord Wealth has confirmed Patrick Thomas, head of sustainable investing, has left the firm after 15 years. Thomas (pictured) joined the firm in 2010 as investment director, ESG service, before taking on the head of sustainable investing role. He created the Sustainable Themes portfolio range at Canaccord in 2017, and the CGWM Thematic Growth fund in January 2023. He has…
Sustainability-focused industrial solutions provider Brimstone announced a new commercial agreement with Amazon, reserving annual volumes of Brimstone’s low-carbon cement from its forthcoming plant. The agreement was announced alongside successful third-party test results of Brimstone’s lower-carbon Ordinary Portland Cement (OPC) for use in concrete construction. Cement production, an ingredient in concrete, accounts for approximately 8% of global carbon dioxide emissions, with…