A selection of the major stories impacting ESG investors, in five easy pieces.  European regulators have ratcheted up efforts to eliminate greenwashing from the investment sector. End of an era I – The fight against greenwashing inched ahead with the release of final guidelines for naming ESG- or sustainability-related funds by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA). It had…

Rickard Nilsson, Head of Stewardship Success at Esgaia, considers how asset owners can maximise long-term impact at a time of regulatory uncertainty. Capital markets play a key role in influencing resource mobilisation. At a time when political division is delaying needed policy action, investors find themselves at a crossroads over how to act amid regulatory uncertainty. Capitalism is governed by…

Improvements in technology and measurement are showing that forest conservation projects do work – and should be accelerated, says Antoine Rostand, Co-founder of Kayrros. The voluntary carbon market continues to divide opinion. Just recently, the Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) provoked a backlash – including from within the organisation itself – when it revised its Corporate Net Zero Standard to…

Graham Upton, Chief Architect – Intelligent Industry, Capgemini UK, explains how climate goals are driving UK firms to reindustrialise. The UK has recently been accused of watering down its net zero ambitions, with a report from the Climate Change Committee suggesting that the UK is on course to miss meeting the pledges it made at COP28. Despite this, new data…

Helen Avery, Director for Nature Programmes at the Green Finance Institute, evidences the material risks environmental deterioration creates for the UK economy and financial sector. New research led by the Green Finance Institute (GFI) has quantified the potential impact that nature degradation could have on the UK’s economy, and assessing the extent to which such risks may be material for…

On 14 May 2024, the European Securities and Markets Authority (“ESMA“) published its final report on “Guidelines on funds’ names using ESG or sustainability-related terms” (the “Guidelines“). The Guidelines aim to provide fund managers with clear and measurable criteria to assess their ability to use ESG and/or sustainability-related terms in fund names, thereby ensuring that investors are protected against associated…

Investors, companies urged are being urged to increase their focus on the social impacts of the climate-critical sector.  Natural minerals underground are essential to the world’s energy transition, but new research has found that their extraction was linked to a surge in human rights-related abuses by mining companies.   International NGO the Business and Human Rights Resource Centre’s (BHRRC) latest transition…