Proportionate and balanced regulation has a central role in setting out standards and expectations on sustainability and climate-related goals and can drive positive change. That’s why an open dialogue between our industry and the Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) on the shape of the future UK regulatory framework for sustainable finance is essential if the UK … Read more
This month the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN) has become the latest group to launch a toolkit of investors to assess biodiversity risk. Target 15 of the Global Biodiversity Framework announced at COP15 last year requires large and transnational companies and financial institutions to monitor, assess, and disclose biodiversity risks, dependencies, and impacts from operations, … Read more
Legal and General Capital has appointed former MP Julia Goldsworthy as head of social impact investment. Previously Goldsworthy was director of strategy and economy at the West Midlands Combined Authority, where she led negotiations on the regional second devolution deal and local industrial strategy. Before that she spent three years at PwC focusing on the … Read more
Asian corporates are improving their disclosure around climate emissions – and the emissions themselves – but there is still much room for improvement, according to research from Barclays. The firm analysed 31 of the 50 largest Asian corporate emitters for the paper Asia 50: Further progress evidenced and found regulation is driving more organisations to … Read more
Franklin Templeton has expanded its global sustainability strategy team with the hire of Christine Shaw as senior advisor. Shaw joins Franklin Templeton after more than 20 years at the State of Connecticut’s Office of the Treasurer, where she served in various roles with oversight of $65bn in assets. In her most recent role, she directed … Read more
Mirova, AXA IM and Robeco are among 13 financial institutions coming together to launch a global database of avoided emissions. Avoided emissions, sometimes called ‘Scope 4’, are emission reductions that occur outside a product’s life cycle or value chain, but as a result of the use of that product, for example, fuel-saving tires. Unlike induced … Read more
Nobody ever said putting in place sustainability disclosure rules for funds was going to be easy, and it has been anything but. The European Commission’s responses in April to a small number of questions posed last year by the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) on the SFDR showed that the industry’s reaction to an earlier “clarification” … Read more
Wealth manager Cazenove Capital has written to 93 asset managers on its approved fund list to set out its view on voting best practice at annual general meetings (AGMs). Together, the asset managers represent more than £30trn of assets under management. In the letter, Cazenove put forward six recommendations for voting best practice, which it … Read more
AXA Investment Managers has named Marie Luchet as head of ESG and sustainability at AXA IM Prime, the firm’s private markets fund-of-funds business. Luchet will be responsible for overseeing AXA IM Prime’s sustainability strategy, including the advancement of ESG integration in investment decision making, fund and asset-manager selection, and reporting and product design. Prior to … Read more
Schroders is providing clients the opportunity to offset carbon emissions from their underlying fund holdings by launching carbon offset share classes. These share classes will be available as part of the Schroder International Selection Fund Global Climate Leaders, which invests in companies that evidence ‘climate change leadership’. The fund is managed by Simon Webber and … Read more