To be successful, engagement must be a two-way street, says Gillian Secrett, Research Director at the Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership.  Direct engagement with investee companies has emerged as the preferred way for institutional investors to influence corporate decision making. Exerting influence means being useful to companies and their boards, rather than confrontational.  According to research recently published by the…

Upheaval of US climate policies aligns country’s net zero trajectory with China’s.  Although climate-focused policies largely maintained momentum in 2024, there is heightened concern that increasing policy uncertainty places the Paris Agreement’s ‘well below 2°C’ by 2050 commitment under pressure.  The Inevitable Policy Response’s (IPR) 2025 Transition Forecast surveyed around 250 climate transition experts on the expected net zero trajectories…

Last month, Morningstar published the latest insights into its sustainable index range, finding wide variation in performance 2024. On one hand, climate indexes thrived, driven by the magnificent seven, but at the same time impact-aligned indices – which focus on companies making a positive impact on the planet – struggled.   However, while Nvidia and Tesla played a central role in the…

Goldman Sachs Asset Management has brought a new bond fund to market, which offers exposure to biodiversity conservation and remediation. The Goldman Sachs Biodiversity Bond fund, classified as Article 9 under SFDR, invests mainly in investment-grade corporate bonds across developed and emerging markets. The strategy will invest in labelled bonds, whereby the proceeds of the bonds are applied towards biodiversity-related…

Watering down of the EU’s flagship sustainability due diligence law “strip it of any meaning”. The European Commission’s (EC) much publicised omnibus has confirmed sustainability investor’s worst anxieties, significantly scaling back the long-awaited Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD). The EC’s omnibus package, published this week, presents an imminent threat to the bloc’s sustainability rules. It looks to reduce the…

There have been many conversations about whether sustainable strategies can deliver competitive financial returns as well as sustainable outcomes. In the equities space, we have seen substantial differences between the performance of sustainable funds and traditional funds; this is mostly explained by the stylistic differences between the most prominent sectors across sustainable strategies, such as their quality growth bias or…

When I was 16, I bought a pair of Converse trainers.   For most people, today, this might not seem like a big thing but, back then, it was. It meant that I was the first person in our school year to branch away from the, then, accepted norm of wearing white Reebok Classics.    No one could understand why I would…

Schroders Greencoat has received regulatory approval in the UK to launch the Global Energy Infrastructure Long-Term Asset fund (LTAF).  Offering exposure to energy transition infrastructure, the LTAF will be a feeder fund into the Schroders Capital Semi-Liquid Energy Transition fund, launched a year ago for defined contribution clients. The feeder fund expands exposure to UK wealth clients, after receiving approval from the…

Drax is no stranger to being in the headlines. Last year, a report from the think tank, Ember, found its Selby power station – the largest power plant in the UK – produced four times more carbon emissions than the UK’s last remaining coal-fired plant in 2023, and was Britain’s single largest carbon emitter, despite taking more than £500m in…