Agreement on funding and monitoring is seen as a crucial catalyst for channelling private capital to Global Biodiversity Framework goals.   COP16 will resume in Rome this week with negotiators aware of the need to resolve last November’s impasse to stimulate the flow of private investment toward nature and biodiversity restoration.  Parties failed to reach quorum in Colombia last year on…

Industry experts highly concerned over anti-ESG actions, as investor-led report looks to galvanise pushback on infringed rights. Proposals from sustainability-focused shareholders are increasingly under pressure, as US policymakers and anti-ESG proponents accelerate efforts to erode their ability to hold companies to account. Rule changes announced by the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) earlier this month are widely seen as…

City Hive has appointed Hargreaves Lansdown’s Emma Wall (pictured left) and Rathbones’ David Coombs (pictured right) as chairs of the ACT Stewardship Council and Global Leadership Council. City Hive launched the ACT standard of corporate culture in May 2022, aiming to provide professional investors with a framework to understand and progress cultural change in a standardised way. Wall, who is…

First omnibus package expected to shrink scope of carbon levy on imports as bloc wrestles with competitiveness fears. The simplification of the EU’s carbon tax mechanism for emissions-intensive imported goods will help to reduce the compliance burden for companies, but its application timeline must be upheld, according to policy specialists.   The EU has committed to a five-year simplification agenda…

Investor concerns linger over attempts to sideline sustainability, but others say simplification was long overdue.  Many sustainability-focused investment managers and asset owners remain anxious that the UK’s Financial Reporting Council (FRC) has removed all mention of ‘environment’ and ‘society’ from its definition of stewardship.  Others, though, see this as a positive step, saying that the simplification will make it easier…