Asset owners are urged to better reflect their priorities when engaging with third-party providers and underlying investments.  Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) themes have been increasingly featured in pension funds’ investment policies and assessment criteria for third-party providers, but research has highlighted their surprising absence in ongoing engagement efforts.   Published by pension fund advisor Pensions for Purpose, the report drew…

Despite warnings on its climate impact, demand for Canadian liquefied natural gas continues to grow. Industry experts have expressed concern on the potential inclusion of natural gas in Canada’s proposed taxonomy and the way it could undermine its domestic and international credibility. Launched in 2021, the Canadian Sustainable Finance Action Council delivered a roadmap report detailing the taxonomy’s approach and governance…

Tangible progress could be seen on multilateral development banks’ reform and climate finance commitments at the World Bank and IMF’s Spring Meetings, according to E3G Senior Policy Advisor Laura Sabogal Reyes. Ahead of the 80th anniversary of the Bretton Woods Agreement in July, the World Bank and International Monetary Fund’s Spring Meetings were an opportune time to showcase how far…

A selection of the major stories impacting ESG investors, in five easy pieces.  This week’s G7 commitment on coal will have insufficient impact without a global response. Coal in the whole – The Group of Seven (G7) committed to phasing out unabated coal by 2035, but was criticised for allowing continued use of the fuel in power plants that deploy carbon…

Christina Ng, Managing Director of the Energy Shift Institute, says Asia’s transition finance complications could harm its climate goals. Is transition finance an attempt to extend the spectrum of green finance? Or is it a covert means of financing non-green activities, which have had limited opportunity in gaining access to sustainability-conscious investors? This phenomenon appears to be occurring in Asian…

Anita Dorett, Director of the Investor Alliance for Human Rights, warns of the pitfalls of relying on social audits to address state-sponsored forced labour risks. Given multinationals’ complex global supply chains and trading relationships, the vast majority of today’s goods are sourced and produced far from where they are sold and consumed. For this reason, to meet their responsibilities under…

Dr Henning Stein, Finance Fellow at Cambridge Judge Business School, and Ariel Barack, CEO of Ordway Selections, explain why the drivers of change – and the roles of public and private markets – are evolving. Efforts to build a genuinely sustainable food and agriculture system have now been under way for a number of years. On the whole, the story…

European Union will withdraw from ‘anti-green’ treaty on environmental grounds, but sources warn of impact on renewable investments. The European Parliament’s vote last week to withdraw from the controversial Energy Charter Treaty has been interpreted as a near-certain ‘death blow’ to a decades-old agreement that is widely perceived as outdated and anti-green. But the decision, which lawmakers say is necessary…