Remember when all investment conferences had to have an ESG session? Now it’s the AI session that has become mandatory, and you can get through a whole conference without hearing anyone mention the three-letter acronym that used to be on everyone’s lips. Granted, ESG is – or was – a nebulous concept, not only yoking together three very different sets…
Amundi Wins Mandate to Launch $660 Million Fossil-Free Cash Fund for UK Universities
European asset manager Amundi announced that it has been selected by a coalition of UK Higher Education Institutions (HEIs), led by the University of Cambridge, to launch a cash fund that excludes companies contributing to fossil fuel expansion globally. According to Amundi, the new fund will exclude fossil fuel companies, as well as utilities, banks, insurers, and other companies that…
UK to Regulate ESG Ratings Providers
The UK Government introduced its finalized law to regulate ESG ratings providers in Parliament, with the new legislation bringing the providers under the supervision of the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA). The new legislation follows a call by securities regulator standards setter IOSCO in 2021 for regulators to focus on improving transparency in the ESG ratings and data space, and to…
Google, NextEra Sign Deal to Restart U.S. Nuclear Plant to Power AI Infrastructure
Google and electric power and energy infrastructure provider NextEra Energy announced a new agreement to restart a nuclear plant in Iowa shut down in 2020, with Google signing a 25-year deal to purchase energy generated by the plant to help power its growing cloud and AI infrastructure in the state. Alongside the power purchase agreement (PPA), Google and NextEra also…
Brookfield, Cameco Sign $80 Billion Nuclear Deployment Deal with U.S. Government
Brookfield Asset Management, uranium fuel provider Cameco, and their jointly-owned nuclear technology company Westinghouse Electric announced today the launch of a new strategic partnership with the U.S. Government, aimed at accelerating the rollout of nuclear reactors to provide the energy needed to enable the deployment of Artificial Intelligence infrastructure across the U.S. Under the new partnership, at least $80 billion…
Guest Post – ESG at the Cutting-Edge: Building Systems that Learn, Adapt, and Benefit from Change
By: Dr. Tim Siegenbeek van Heukelom, Chief Impact Officer at SocialSuite We are entering an age where resilience is no longer enough. The assumption that we can “bounce back” after disruption is starting to look dangerously outdated. The world that ESG systems were built for—one of relatively stable geopolitics, predictable supply chains, and linear progress toward sustainability targets—has been replaced…
Redwood Raises $350 Million to Scale U.S. Battery Ecosystem
U.S.-based energy storage and battery materials provider Redwood Materials announced that it has raised $350 million in a Series E funding round to accelerate the growth of its clean energy storage and critical materials operations. Founded in 2017 by Tesla co-founder and former CTO JB Straubel, Nevada-based Redwood provides energy storage at scale, and produces critical battery materials such as…