Microsoft announced a new multi-year offtake agreement with forest investment and management firm EFM, providing access to up to 3 million nature-based carbon removal credits from EFM’s investment platform. Launched in 2004, Portland, Oregon-based EFM is a real estate asset manager focused on investing in natural climate solutions across the Americas. EFM’s approach includes using climate-smart management approaches to its…
Financial technology and data services provider and exchange operator Intercontinental Exchange (ICE) announced the launch of its new ICE Global Climate Risk Solution, aimed at providing investors with a view of physical climate risks of their portfolios, based on geospatial data. According to ICE, the new solution marks an expansion of its geospatial platform to introduce global physical risk for…
Google announced today the launch of a new collaboration with South Carolina-based nuclear project developer Elementl Power, including an agreement to invest in three advanced nuclear energy projects. The agreement comes as Google and its tech giant peers increasingly turn to nuclear energy to help address the growing emissions impact of their rapidly expanding data center footprints. While Google has…
The European Commission announced the launch of a new call for evidence, seeking input on its initiative to revise its Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), which aims to improve the regulation’s usefulness and to reduce reporting and compliance burdens for investors. The Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation, in application since 2021, sets out how financial market participants, such as asset managers,…
India’s Ministry of Finance announced the release of a draft framework for its Climate Finance Taxonomy, its classification system for identifying sustainable economic activities aligned with its climate goals, aimed at enabling the facilitation of major capital flows required to support the net zero transition, while preventing greenwashing. India has set a series of climate goals, including a target to…
Legal & General Investment Management has merged two sustainable funds with mandates with similar characteristics, after both funds failed to deliver “broad, long-term performance outcomes”. The Legal & General Future World Sustainable European Equity Focus fund has been merged into the Legal & General European Equity Income Fund because, according to LGIM’s most recent Value Assessment, the fund “underperformed for…
The cross-party Environmental Audit Committee (EAC) has warned that, without substantial private investment and clear commitments from ministers, the UK may not meet its pledge to protect 30% of land by 2030 and offer communities greater access to nature. In its report on the role of natural capital in the UK’s green economy, the committee urges ministers to set out…
Morningstar is considering introduced ratings for semi-liquid funds, including Long-Term Asset Funds (LTAFs) and European Long-Term Investment Funds (ELTIFs). The firm has launched a rating methodology for semiliquid funds, which will initially cover US interval funds. Morningstar will begin assigning ratings in the third quarter of 2025, starting with US-based semiliquid strategies. The framework builds on the firm’s existing Medalist…
The Network of Central Banks and Supervisors for Greening the Financial System (NGFS), announced today the launch of its first set of short-term scenarios, aimed at enabling central banks and financial sector supervisors to analyze the near-term impact of climate change and climate-related policies on the stability and resilience of economies and financial systems. The NGFS was established in 2017,…