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Dig Deeper: Carbon Markets Are Hiding a Gem
New data reveals how carbon emissions can unlock investment in decarbonisation By Jan Ahrens, Chief Executive, SparkChange. There is little doubt global warming presents a catastrophe for humanity, and that it requires unprecedented investment to achieve the goals of the Paris Agreement. McKinsey estimates $9.2trn per year. When we talk about the financial effects of…
Finastra ESG Service Seeks to Automate ESG Loan Premia Calculation for Banks
Loan pricing is a complicated business that’s being given an added shot of complexity by the requirement that borrowers’ ESG-linked performance be factored into the calculations. It’s a challenge that financial technology provider Finastra has sought to solve with a new “standalone” solution to complement its widely used Loan IQ corporate lending servicing system. The…
Data Start-up SparkChange Helps Investors Meet Climate Goals Via Carbon Markets
Jan Ahrens believes the majority of environmental sustainability investment theses are wrong. The problem, says the carbon markets economist, is that most strategies are built to reward companies that are environmentally clean and not also those that are striving to be clean. “It misses the mark of decarbonisation, because if we make it easy for…
ISS ESG Provides US Cyber Risks Visibility for Sustainability Investors
ESG investors are now able to monitor companies’ cyber risks through a new service provided by ISS ESG. The ISS ESG US Cyber Risk Index offers clients visibility into which corporates face the highest risk of digital intrusion based on their cyber security provisions. ISS ESG, the sustainable investment unit of Institutional Shareholder Services, said…
Data, Tech Rising to Water Challenge as Historic UN Meeting Highlights Alarm
History will be made in New York next week when heads of state from around the world gather for the first United Nations Water Conference in half a century. The fact that it is being held at all underlines the growing importance of water to the global sustainability project. Water-based issues, from pollution, stewardship, overuse…
Harvard Report Underlines Broadening Importance of ESG
ESG is now of such importance to financial institutions that getting the data and technology aspect of the topic right has become crucial to the smooth running of their broader operations. A report published by the Harvard Law School Forum on Corporate Governance is the latest high-profile examination of the growth of sustainable markets to…
Free Digital Toolkit Helps Private Equity Integrate ESG
A free digital tool that helps private equity firms integrate ESG into their investment processes is hoped to boost the sustainability performance of a market to which financial institutions have huge exposure. The Investor ESG Toolkit was created by UK-based sustainability consultancy Sancroft to help PE firms identify how their investment and risk strategies stack…
TNFD To Unveil COP15 Influenced Iteration of Reporting Framework
The Taskforce for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) is to release the latest version of its guide on how financial institutions should report on their biodiversity risks. The fourth iteration, due next month, is informed by the Global Biodiversity Framework (GBF) agreed at the COP15 in Montreal late last year. Target 15, of the GBF’s 23…
ESG Data Spotlight Shines on Sovereign Debt and its Challenges
The ESG lens is being focused on sovereign bonds, considered by many observers as the next frontier for sustainability data. The Assessing Sovereign Climate-Related Opportunities and Risks (Ascor) project has launched a framework for assessing government debt that it hopes will develop into a standalone tool. The organisation, which comprises asset owners and managers that…
Mizuho Bolsters ESG Data Capabilities as Japan Toughens Regulations
Japanese financial giant Mizuho Bank has upgraded its ESG data capabilities as the government in Tokyo tightens rules on sustainability reporting and after the bank was implicated in a greenwashing scandal. The financial services major has put in place a disclosures and data verification framework to help it assess the progress and credibility of net-zero…