2020 can’t get behind us fast enough. But the shocking realization we’ve all faced about how vulnerable our society and global economy is also one of the reasons we’ve seen the remarkable embrace of ‘net zero’ by the business community this year.
This year, the number of the world’s largest companies committing to net-zero emissions targets, meaning they will eliminate as much of the greenhouse gases as they produce, tripled to 1,500 from the start of the year.
When the pandemic hit in the spring, those of us leading the fight against the climate crisis thought that business momentum towards net zero would slow down. But, the opposite happened. The lessons of the pandemic—which scientists had been warning about for years—made major institutional investors and corporations realize they had to increase their own climate ambitions.
https://www.forbes.com/sites/mindylubber/2021/01/05/net-zero-gaining-momentum-like-never-before-among-investor-and-business-community/?sh=2268178c8bf0
Christopher K. Merker, PhD, CFA, is a director with Private Asset Management at Robert W. Baird & Co. He holds a PhD in investment governance and fiduciary effectiveness from Marquette University, where he has taught the course “Sustainable Finance” since 2009. Executive director of Fund Governance Analytics (FGA), an ESG research partnership with Marquette University, he is a member of the CFA Institute ESG Working Group, an international committee currently exploring ESG standards, publishes the blog,
Sustainable Finance, which covers current topics around governance and sustainability in investing, and is co-author of the book,
The Trustee Governance Guide: The Five Imperatives of 21st Century Investing.
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