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South Korea’s Gas Gamble Risks Stranded Assets

South Korea’s Gas Gamble Risks Stranded Assets

IEEFA Energy Finance Specialist Michelle Kim explains why the country’s East Sea gas development will not strengthen its energy security. South Korea’s Yoon Suk-yeol administration recently announced the exploratory drilling of potentially massive oil and gas reserves in the East Sea, estimated to hold up to 14 billion barrels of oil and gas. This project aims to address the country’s…

From Macro to Micro

Emilio Barucci, Professor of Financial Mathematics at Politecnico di Milano, says more advanced and sophisticated climate risk models are needed to support ESG investing. ESG investing focuses on investment processes and products that take into account the ESG features of stocks, bonds and mutual funds. The growth of ESG investing, in terms of assets under management, is driven both by…

EFRAG, TNFD Release Guide Mapping Connections with CSRD and TNFD Nature-related Reporting

EFRAG, TNFD Release Guide Mapping Connections with CSRD and TNFD Nature-related Reporting

The Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) and the European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) announced the publication of the TNFD-ESRS Correspondence Mapping, aimed at helping companies disclosing nature and biodiversity-related information understand the commonalities between the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS) and the TNFD’s disclosure recommendations. Tony Goldner, Executive Director of TNFD, said: “As market participants from over 45…

Horses for Courses

Winning the renewables race is all about location, according to Richard Lum, Co-CIO at Victory Hill Capital Partners. The transition to a low-carbon economy is creating a once-in-a-generation dislocation in energy markets, fundamentally bringing the longevity of current energy infrastructure into question. For example, whereas energy systems designed for oil, coal and gas were predicated on centralised power generation, there…

Greenwashing Risk Grows in China ESG Funds

Chinese asset managers are improving ESG awareness, but weak regulation means green claims often don’t match reality, says Greenpeace. Greenwashing is a growing risk in the Chinese fund management sector, as marketing of ESG products runs ahead of standards and regulatory oversight, a new report by Greenpeace has found. The environmental campaign group’s study of 16 major Chinese asset managers…

Sovereign Wealth Funds’ Social Focus

Ana Nacvalovaite, Research Fellow at the University of Oxford, explains how investing in employee-owned businesses can help sovereign funds create prosperity for future generations. Sovereign wealth funds’ (SWFs) assets under management (AUM) hit an all-time high of US$11.2 trillion globally in 2023, according to the Global SWF Annual Report 2024. But they invested less, and less often, than in 2022….

Nestlé Launches Sustainably Sourced Chocolate Brand for Travel Retail

Nestlé Launches Sustainably Sourced Chocolate Brand for Travel Retail

Global food and beverage company Nestlé announced today the launch of the Nestlé Sustainably Sourced chocolate range in its travel retail channel, offering consumers in airports around the world with chocolate products made with sustainably sourced cocoa. The cocoa supply chain is faced with a series of sustainability related challenges, ranging from extreme farmer poverty and child labor to climate…

Amazon Eliminates 15 Billion Plastic Air Pillows in Packaging

Amazon Eliminates 15 Billion Plastic Air Pillows in Packaging

Amazon announced today that it has replaced 95% of the plastic air pillows from delivery packaging in North America with paper filler, and is working toward full removal of the plastic pillows by the end of the year. According to the company, the announcement marks Amazon’s largest to-date plastic packaging reduction effort in North America, adding that it will avoid…

UBS Invests in Impact Data Provider GIST Impact

UBS Invests in Impact Data Provider GIST Impact

Impact data and analytics provider GIST Impact announced today an investment from UBS’ venture and innovation unit, UBS Next. Founded in 2008, GIST Impact provides data and analytics solutions aimed at helping companies and investors measure their environmental and social impacts, using data-based intelligence with location-specific impact data covering more than 14,500 companies. The firm said its data and software…

ESAs Add More Ideas into SFDR Mix

In a bid to simplify the regime, the European Supervisory Authorities run the risk of adding complexity, regulatory specialists say.  The European Supervisory Authorities’ (ESAs) proposal for a revamped Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) may seek to clarify the regime, but lawyers are concerned it could make it diverge from other jurisdictional rules, creating disruption for fund managers.  The European Banking…