Policy support for sustainability and governance is paving the way for greater corporate engagement, says Yvette Kwan, Executive Advisor at ASIFMA. Shaking up existing stewardship practices can take time, especially when the current approach is so deeply embedded. But regulators in APAC want to improve things as they seek to attract fresh capital to the region. Many countries in…
METYCLE Raises $15 Million to Modernize Metal Recycling
Startup METYCLE announced that it has raised €14.4 million (USD$14.8 million) in a Series A funding round to expand its platform for the sale and purchase of recycled and scrap metal, which aims to bring more efficiency to the global market, making it easier to recycle more metal and to reduce carbon emissions. According to the company, using recycled metals…
Bloomberg Launches New Solution to Help Investors Assess Portfolio Climate Risks and Opportunities
Business and financial markets information service provider Bloomberg announced the launch of MARS Climate, a new solution aimed at enabling buy-side and sell-side financial firms to quantify and manage climate risks and opportunities across portfolios. The new solution forms part of Bloomberg’s Multi-Asset Risk Management (MARS) suite. According to Bloomberg, the launch of the new solution comes to help investors…
MSCI, Swiss Re Partner to Help Financial Sector Assess and Manage Climate Risk
Investment data and research provider MSCI and Swiss Re Reinsurance Solutions announced the launch of a new collaboration, aimed at enabling financial sector companies to assess, manage and mitigate their physical climate risk. The new collaboration will bring together MSCI’s GeoSpatial Asset Intelligence with Swiss Re’s proprietary natural catastrophe and climate risk data and insights, including its CatNet tool. MSCI’s…
Carbon Removal Startup Founded by 16-Year Old Raises $3.5 Million
Regenerative agriculture and carbon removal-focused startup CarbonZero.Eco, founded by 16-year old Harper Moss, announced that it has raised $3.5 million, with proceeds aimed at supporting its biochar-based projects to remove CO2 from the atmosphere while improving crop yields for farmers. Based in Silicon Valley, CarbonZero.Eco was launched by Moss, reportedly driven by a “passion to make a positive impact on…
Mizuho, GenZero to Develop Transition Credits to Accelerate Shift to Clean Energy
Tokyo-based banking and financial services company Mizuho Bank and Temasek-owned decarbonization solutions-focused investment platform GenZero announced today a new partnership aimed at developing transition credits to help fund the acceleration of the early retirement of coal-fired power plants. Coal is by far the largest source of energy-based CO2 emissions globally, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA), accounting for 45%…
Microsoft CSO Says AI Widens Gap – and Offers Solutions – to Meeting Climate Goals
The rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI) over the past few years has created challenges for Microsoft in achieving its “moonshot” sustainability goals, including its target to become carbon negative by 2030, with the company’s Chief Sustainability Officer Melanie Nakagawa acknowledging that “the moon has gotten further away.” In a blog post discussing Microsoft’s progress towards its 2030 targets, however,…