Sustainable Finance is “Tops” in Sustainable Finance

In 2017 we launched Sustainable Finance with one mission: to curate the best in research and reporting on sustainability. Founded at Marquette University in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, we were the first university to offer programs in Sustainable Finance starting in 2005.

Since launching the blog, we have seen visits to our site double every year, and this year has seen our best year yet, with thousands of visitors from over 65 countries. As we close out 2020, we want to thank our readers for their support in making Sustainable Finance the number one sustainable finance blog in the world.

– Christopher K. Merker, CFA, Ph.D.

Editor, Sustainable Finance

Gross Domestic Wellbeing (CarnegieUK)

https://www.carnegieuktrust.org.uk/publications/gross-domestic-wellbeing-gdwe-an-alternative-measure-of-social-progress/

Gross Domestic Wellbeing (GDWe)™ offers a holistic alternative to GDP as a measure of social progress. Using the framework and data in the Office for National Statistics Measures of National Wellbeing Dashboard, the Trust has developed a tool that provides a single figure for GDWe in England and mapped this against GDP for the past six years.

In this report, we provide both an analysis of overall Gross Domestic Wellbeing (GDWe) for the past six years, and an individual GDWe score for each of the 10 domains of wellbeing in the ONS dashboard, to highlight areas requiring attention. We have supplemented this analysis with a thematic review of over 800 recommendations from nearly 50 commissions and inquiries since 2010 – from Marmot to Grimsey, Dilnot to Taylor – to highlight the many areas of mutual focus, challenge, and concern. The recommendations show that though the data currently being collected by the ONS offers a useful starting point and a framework for measuring wellbeing, there are significant gaps.

This is a subject also discussed in:

https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2019/06/12/esg-and-the-commons-from-tragedy-to-governance/

Private Inequity Report (17 Communications)

A research report published by 17 Communications, with contributed content from the Predistribution Initiative, about how the private equity industry is responding to systemic and systematic risks like climate change, COVID-19 and racial injustice.

The Private Inequity report found that manager responses tilted most toward easier moves that foster limited systemic change – 28% making statements and 15% donations – and least to the more substantive internal and external changes to policies and practices, which each saw action from less than 10% of managers. Climate change fostered the fewest manager actions overall, while the pandemic got the most. 

The report also has 11 recommendations for managers to improve their ability to respond and help address systemic crises, including guidance on transparency and compensation policy changes, audits of current practices, new accountability mechanisms, and integration of diversity, equity, and inclusion principles, Rothenberg says.

“While we recognize the private equity industry is responding to calls for stronger ESG integration, and many have taken steps in a positive direction, systemic crises demand timely action and less of a piecemeal approach,” said Delilah Rothenberg, Executive Director of the Predistribution Initiative and a contributing author for the report. “Despite limited action to date, private equity firms are well-positioned to drive positive change given their ability to influence portfolio company governance, priorities, and even capital structures. To step up to the plate and demonstrate leadership, private equity investors need to conduct holistic assessments of their internal and external business practices to identify exposure and contributions to such risks, develop action plans with clear targets and timelines to close gaps, and communicate publicly about their ongoing progress.”

Link to the full report.

The New Energy Giants are Renewable Companies (Bloomberg)

The tipping point may come next year, when Goldman Sachs Group Inc. projects that spending on renewable power will overtake that of oil and gas drilling for the first time.

Meet the clean supermajors. They have the clout and financial might of the energy behemoths that plumbed the world over for oil and gas before them. But instead of digging mines and drilling wells, they’re leading the race to electrify the global economy.

These four companies—Enel, Iberdrola, NextEra Energy and Orsted—prioritized the building or buying of clean-power plants when those assets were still considered alternative and expensive. Now they’re on the cusp of a breakthrough. Ever-cheaper solar panels and wind turbines are beginning to dominate new power installations, threatening the growth of natural gas on our power grids and upending energy markets.

https://www.bloomberg.com/graphics/2020-renewable-energy-supermajors/?_lrsc=ee0f4367-8a86-4413-9a9a-2e1cbde6ab9d

Big Companies Urge Biden, Congress to Address Climate Change (WSJ)

A broad cross sec­tion of big U.S. cor­po­ra­tions in­clud­ing Ama­zon.­com Inc., Cit­i­group Inc. and Ford Mo­tor Co. are call­ing on Con­gress to work closely with Pres­i­dent-elect Joe Biden to ad­dress the threat of cli­mate change.

In a let­ter to be sent to Congress and the Biden tran­si­tion team on Wednes­day, more than 40 com­pa­nies say they sup­port the U.S. re­join­ing the Paris cli­mate ac­cord, and urge “Pres­i­dent-elect Biden and the new Con­gress to work to­gether to en­act am­bi­tious, durable, bi­par­ti­san cli­mate so­lu­tions.”

https://www.wsj.com/articles/big-companies-urge-biden-congress-to-address-climate-change-11606885261?st=zapyi566rfj2iuu&reflink=article_copyURL_share