A selection of the major stories impacting ESG investors, in five easy pieces.  Developed countries have belatedly reached a target for climate finance, only to be set a new one for nature. Ten years after – It might have taken them a little more than a decade, but at last they got there. Developed nations mobilised US$115.9 billion of climate…

Shareholder dissent over “governance failure” expected to intensify, after dip in director support at AGM.   ExxonMobil breathed a sigh of relief on 29 May when its nominated directors were re-elected, but shareholder dissatisfaction will continue to be felt.  The oil and gas major’s annual general meeting (AGM) was widely anticipated, with several shareholders pre-declaring their intention to vote against…

Transmission mechanisms hold the key to adapting asset allocation models to dual materiality, contends Joseph Naayem, Managing Partner, Kalmus Capital. In the good old days of single materiality, investors could afford to incrementally take a linear approach to how they integrated sustainability into their decision-making processes. As we enter an age of double materiality, allocators all along the investment value…

Undervaluation of and underinvestment in women is leaving money on the table, says Sandra Osborne Kartt, Deputy Chief Investment Officer, ImpactAssets Capital Partners. Sound the alarm – we stand to miss out on US$290 billion a year in the US economy. In an era focused on capturing every bit of economic growth, it’s almost inconceivable that such a vast sum…

Dr Torsten Schwarze, Partner at Morgan Lewis, explains how two EU directives will shape Europe’s legal framework to restrict greenwashing. The European Commission has initiated two directives with the intent of clarifying and unifying the EU’s legal framework on environmental claims: the EmpCo Directive and Green Claims Directive. ESG compliance is becoming increasingly important for companies, and the development of…

Whoever wins July’s general election will need to prioritise climate ambition and provide clear policy signals for investors. With the UK High Court having now dubbed the government’s net zero strategy unlawful for the second time, the country is now considered a climate laggard, leaving sustainability-conscious investors rudderless.   The decision has been interpreted by many as yet another setback…

Head of Sustainability at CDPQ Bertrand Millot highlights the pension fund’s focus on decarbonising the real economy, as well as comprehensively divesting from the oil industry. Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec (CDPQ), the Canadian pension fund with net assets of C$434 billion (US$319 billion), recently completed its full withdrawal from oil production and thermal coal mining – thereby…