The UK is on track for a general election this year, with current Prime Minister Rishi Sunak hinting it will likely take place in the second half of 2024, though he could string out his term until January 2025. Ahead of a flurry of candidate promises, ESG Clarity asked the sustainability sector for its essential … Read more
The Financial Conduct Authority’s policy statement and final rules on Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) and investment labels, published last November, contained a number of different implementation dates, ranging from the end of May 2024 to December 2026. Although the timeline is longer, it may feel similar in nature to the implementation of the Consumer Duty … Read more
The improvements witnessed so far in Japan are just the start of a long-term upward trend in corporate reform in the nation, Man GLG portfolio manager Emily Badger, who said corporate Japan is “undergoing the most radical reform in a generation”. After the Tokyo Stock Exchange (TSE) announced an improvement order to require any company … Read more
European companies are leading the world in linking ESG measures to executive incentive plans, according to a global study by risk consultancy WTW. Almost all main index constituent companies in Europe (93%) reported in this year’s disclosures they had incorporated at least one ESG metric in their executive incentive plans. This is up from 90% … Read more
Artificial intelligence (AI) was the big player in the top sustainable funds of last year, with nine of the ten best performers having technology company NVIDIA in their ten largest holdings – making up 8.8% of the portfolios on average. NVIDIA’s focus on AI has boosted it to a market capitalisation of $1.48trn at the … Read more
High interest rates and a weaker global economy have been headwinds for clean energy equities over the past year. The growth some had expected did not quite materialise, and the MSCI Global Alternative Energy Index fell 27% in 2023, down 50% from its 2021 highs. Yet despite the weak performance in publicly listed companies, the … Read more
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has published a major update to its biodiversity standard to enable companies to meet the growing demands from multiple stakeholders for information on biodiversity impacts. With human activity the leading cause for as many as one million animal and plant species being pushed to the brink of extinction, GRI 101: … Read more
Covid-19 has fundamentally altered the global paradigm, and its impacts are evident practically in every facet of our lives. The growing interest in social risk and human capital management, and enthusiasm for ESG and socially responsible investing, has increased worldwide. In 2023, the majority of assets managed in Europe, comprising approximately €7trn out of a … Read more
Global sustainable funds saw their first quarter of outflows in the last three months of 2023, driven by an acceleration of investors fleeing ESG funds in the US and Japan. However, in spite of a collective outflow of $2.5bn at the global level, European and Asia-ex Japan funds continued to see inflows, Morningstar’s Global Sustainable … Read more
COP28 started mired in controversy and ended with a ground-breaking agreement to gradually phase out fossil fuels and move the world into a new era of decarbonisation. A month on from the close of this critical UNFCCC summit, the question remains – how are we going to make the necessary transition? The transition is not … Read more