Category: Sustainability

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/

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

Securities regulators world-wide are “gravitating” to a view that companies’ global-warming disclosures should differ by industry sector, US Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Jay Clayton said.

Clayton said he spoke with an International Organization of Securities Commissions task force yesterday about how to create global standards that are “meaningful.”

“This is an area where, for certain sectors and certain companies, we all believe disclosure is required, it’s material,” he told the Senate Banking Committee yesterday. “Different sectors, different ways.”

https://mlexmarketinsight.com/insights-center/editors-picks/area-of-expertise/energy/securities-regulators-world-wide-gravitating-to-sector-specific-approach-to-climate-disclosure

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-u-k-s-experiment-with-climate-reporting-is-worth-watching-11605610427?st=8y4p3tiqv5w9fdj&reflink=article_email_share

The U.K. is making its big corporate and financial sectors think more rigorously about climate change. There could be write-downs, but also reassurance for investors that problems aren’t building up out of sight.

From next year, many U.K. companies and funds will have to report how their assets and organizations will affect and be affected by global warming. The new rules, announced by the country’s Treasury chief, Rishi Sunak, as part of a post-Brexit financial strategy last week, are in line with 2017 recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures.

https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-fed-stability-climate-idUSKBN27P2T9

The U.S. Federal Reserve for the first time called out climate change among risks enumerated in its biannual financial stability report, and warned about the potential for abrupt changes in asset values in response to a warming planet.

“Acute hazards, such as storms, floods, or wildfires, may cause investors to update their perceptions of the value of real or financial assets suddenly,” Fed Governor Lael Brainard said in comments attached to the report, released Monday.

“Chronic hazards, such as slow increases in mean temperatures or sea levels, or a gradual change in investor sentiment about those risks, introduce the possibility of abrupt tipping points or significant swings in sentiment,” Brainard said.

Link to Fed Report:

https://www.federalreserve.gov/publications/financial-stability-report.htm

https://blogs.cfainstitute.org/investor/2020/11/09/systemic-climate-risk-and-west-coast-wildfires/

Is 2020 the watershed year when the world begins to understand the concept of systemic risk in our interactions with the natural environment? What explains the recent drumbeat of headlines in the financial press and the accompanying fund flows?

COVID-19 is one reason. The pandemic has accelerated interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investing and influenced government policy, economic activity, and markets in a dramatic, swift, and entirely global way. This is in marked contrast to climate change–associated systemic risk, the awareness of which has developed over a much longer time frame.

https://www.griclub.org/news/real-estate/climate-change-considerations-in-real-estate_1341.html

ESG implementation in real estate strategies, throughout 2019, emerged as a new trend with LPs switching their focus towards impact & sustainable investments, which resulted in 2020 starting off with the largest investment volume for real estate impact investment strategies to date. But with the pandemic outbreak, tenants are increasingly concerned with the impact of buildings on their wellbeing, while investors are trying to minimise risk exposure to climate change related issues, such as fires, droughts and floods, through impact and socially responsible investments.

This GRI Report will discuss the immediate impact of Climate Change and associated risks for real estate and capital markets, as well as related ESG and wellbeing strategies from the point of view of GRI Club members and the IWBI during the “Wellbeing Impacts on Real Estate” and “Climate Change – Must one change investment strategies too?” GRI eMeeting. It will also explore the challenges and opportunities investors, lenders and developers will face when adapting these strategies.

https://www.pionline.com/esg/corporate-boards-improving-esg-less-diversity-survey

Corporate boards are improving the ways they deal with crisis management and ESG issues but less so on diversity, according to PwC’s Annual Corporate Directors Survey released Monday.

The survey conducted from February to March 2020 included 693 directors in more than a dozen industries, 75% of which have annual revenues of more than $1 billion. Among respondents, 76% were men.

The percentage of directors saying that disclosing a company’s efforts on ESG-related issues should be a management priority rose to 41% from 30% in 2019. The percentage of directors saying that ESG issues should regularly be on the agenda rose to 45% from 34% last year.

Among the directors, 67% believe issues like climate change should be taken into account when developing company strategy, and 50% said their boards fully understand ESG issues impacting the company.