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Below are several charts setting out how ESG funds have held up so far this year. Reuters GraphicsTECH REBOUNDESG equity funds enjoyed a quarter of net inflows, even after the March withdrawals, beating non-ESG equity funds, which lost money. ESG funds have historically owned bank shares because of their relatively lower carbon emissions, Boakye said, although versus traditional funds their exposure to banks is generally lower. Across the quarter ESG bond funds managed to attract more cash than they lost. Reuters GraphicsOUTPERFORMINGThanks to the rebound in tech shares and other sectors shunned in 2022, ESG equity funds outperformed traditional funds during the quarter.

LONDON, March 31 (Reuters) - A member of a United Nations-backed coalition of insurance firms and pension funds seeking to tackle climate change told Reuters it was considering quitting after disagreements about curbing investment in the oil and gas sector split the group. The row is the latest in a string of policy splits among major climate coalitions of financial firms. AkademikerPension wanted the position paper to state that NZAOA members should only invest in public equities or corporate bonds when the companies involved are no longer investing in exploration for new oil and gas. German insurer Munich Re (MUVGn.DE) said earlier on Friday it was withdrawing from another alliance of insurers focused on reducing carbon emissions to avoid antitrust risks. "I think it's going to be extremely difficult for a plaintiff, even a government enforcer, to prevail on an antitrust theory of harm," said Mitnick.

Common criticisms related to the accuracy and transparency of the data and ratings, as well as a company's ability to correct errors, the report said. The ERM report said companies' dissatisfaction with the accuracy of ratings was based largely on their experience of finding errors in raters' analysis of company supplied data, undermining their trust in the overall rating. Almost a third of the 104 companies surveyed said they had a "low" to "very low" confidence that the ESG ratings accurately reflected their ESG performance. But they are driven to secure ratings by investor demand, with 95% of companies saying this was a factor for them engaging with ESG raters. Investors, too, are spending large amounts on ESG data and ratings, with costs ranging between $175,000 and $360,000, the ERM said, although many reported having only "moderate confidence" in the accuracy and utility of these ratings.

NatWest, supported by climate activist groups, is happy with 100% of facilitated emissions being attributed to the banks behind capital markets deals. Tonia Plakhotniuk, NatWest Markets' Vice President, Climate & ESG Capital Markets, said that 17% risked "a mismatch" because investors would not account for the remainder themselves. This includes Barclays, which apportions 33% of the capital markets financing to the bank and the rest to investors. Reuters GraphicsUntil banks agree on a compromise, experts say lenders could look to book more business as capital markets rather than loans. The Basel Committee's methodology for assessing Global Systemically Important Banks considers direct lending to be six times more important in its impact on the financial system than capital markets underwriting.

The SFDR defines sustainable investment as contributing to "an environmental or social objective", assessed by indicators such as use of raw materials or production of waste. The people Reuters spoke to said discrepancies among fund portfolios reflected a lack of clarity from the Commission over what constitutes a sustainable investment. Reuters GraphicsReuters GraphicsTEMPERATURE GAUGEMSCI, the finance industry data provider, has developed a way of checking on investment funds' green credentials with its ESG Implied Temperature Rise tool. Among them, for example, are BlackRock's Sustainable Energy Fund, Nordea's Global Climate and Environment Fund and Pictet's Global Environmental Opportunities Fund. "The characterisation of what constitutes a sustainable investment under the SFDR is also a concept that needs further clarifications at European level."

☆ Exclusive: BlackRock fast-tracks eviction of ESG violators from MSCI-linked ETFs
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-09 | by ( Virginia Furness | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

The ruling covers 35 of its European listed ESG ETFs that track MSCI indices. "We found that there was a desire to re-examine the timescales around the removal of companies with the worst controversies," the spokesperson added. MSCI ESG Controversies measure companies based on actual or alleged involvement across a range of adverse ESG indicators including human rights, child labour and toxic waste. Separately, MSCI introduced a similar set of rules for its MSCI ESG Screened Indexes range in February after a consultation with the broader funds industry that began last year. BlackRock has six ETFs based on MSCI's Screened range with assets of around $15 billon.

☆ A man's world: gender parity will take more than five generations
▼ + stars: | 2023-03-08 | by ( Joice Alves | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +6 min

The analyses of the data in the WEF's Global Gender Gap report takes into consideration gender disparity in economic opportunities, education, political empowerment, health and safety. The BofA data shows that U.S. companies with greater gender diversity have offered a median 20% higher return on equity since 2005 than those who lack it. According to consultancy firm EY, almost half of European financial services investors state that gender diversity in the boardroom significantly influences their decision to invest in a company. For senior executive roles, gender parity still looks out of reach. U.S. companies focused on gender diversity on boards and senior executive level have achieved 43% lower earnings risk in subsequent three years than those who lack such diversity, BofA said, citing its own analysis.

LONDON, March 6 (Reuters) - Two former JP Morgan credit bankers on Monday launched a new impact investment advisory firm focused on emerging market infrastructure, with a minority stake by British insurer Legal & General's (LGEN.L) alternative investments arm. The firm, ImpactA Global, aims to help address the World Bank's estimated need for $1 trillion in annual investment in emerging market infrastructure to meet development goals. Da Costa Mendes, a former JPMorgan executive director, shares the top job at ImpactA with co-founder Victoria Miles, who had served as a managing director of the Wall Street firm. ImpactA aims to bring in investors such as development finance institutions, export credit agencies and institutional asset managers to provide debt financing to these projects. ImpactA is among the very few investment firms focused solely on emerging market infrastructure debt, with a global rather than regional focus, she added.

REUTERS/Miguel VidalA CORUNA, Spain/LONDON, Feb 28 (Reuters) - In Spain's A Coruna, two contrasting fashion business models collide - pitching the growing demands for the clothing industry to become more sustainable against the constant need to drive sales. This rainy, windswept, city on the rugged Atlantic coast is the unlikely headquarters of Zara-owner Inditex (ITX.MC) - the world's biggest fast fashion retailer. It also hosts small boutiques offering high quality, durable products that consider themselves an alternative to the fast and affordable fashion propelling Inditex's annual sales of 28 billion euros ($30 billion). "If you release tonnes and tonnes of clothes, textiles, shoes into the market, you will have to collect it," he said. But Circ and its competitors are only capable of producing 1% of the textiles needed to make the 109 million tonnes of clothes per year that the global fashion industry churns out.

In February 2022, the business-led FTSE Women Leaders Review set FTSE350 companies a 40% target for women on boards and in leadership teams by 2025, up from a previous target of 33%. The new goal was given official backing by the Financial Conduct Authority, which regulates listed companies, in April 2022, with the watchdog also including broader diversity targets. In contrast to countries such as Belgium and France, Britain does not have a mandatory quota system for women on boards at listed companies, making the progress more remarkable, the report said. Just over a decade ago, 152 of the FTSE 350 Boards had no women on them. Now there are women on every board and the vast majority of companies have three or more, it added.

☆ Majority of global asset managers still not investing responsibly, ShareAction says
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Industry Insight | Reuters Professional | Energy Crisis Spurs Drive To Address 'Blind Spot' Of Leaky Buildings | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Feb 26 (Reuters) - Global asset managers controlling trillions of dollars are failing to invest in a way that will protect climate, biodiversity and people, despite efforts by the industry to promote its sustainable finance credentials, the corporate responsibility group ShareAction said on Sunday. Yet, two-thirds of 77 asset managers surveyed, which control $60 trillion of assets, had "serious gaps in their responsible investment policies and practices," the group found based on an analysis of their policies. "As managers of tens of trillions of dollars ... their decisions have a vast impact all over the world. ShareAction assessed managers on several hundred indicators, including their holdings of fossil fuel investments; whether they have set shorter-term emissions reductions targets and how they integrate biodiversity policies into decision-making. ShareAction also found the portion of managers performing significantly worse than their peers has fallen from 51% in 2020 to 35% in 2023.

☆ Majority of global asset managers still not investing responsibly - ShareAction
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-26 | by ( Industry Insight | Reuters Professional | Energy Crisis Spurs Drive To Address 'Blind Spot' Of Leaky Buildings | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

☆ Goldman Sachs to invest over $1 bln in Europe biomethane venture
▼ + stars: | 2023-02-06 | by ( Virginia Furness | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

Biomethane, a lower carbon alternative to fossil-based natural gas, is produced from the decomposition of organic waste and is seen as a key plank in efforts to lower carbon emissions in the European Union. Verdalia Bioenergy will invest in both early-stage biomethane development projects as well as existing assets with the aim of contributing to Europe's decarbonisation and energy security agenda, the asset manager said on Monday. It has already signed an agreement to purchase a portfolio of biomethane projects with a total capacity of around 150 gigawatt hours per year (GWh/year) in mid-stage development in Spain. Biomethane can be used in the same way as natural gas and delivered using the same infrastructure, yet comes without the same high level of climate-damaging emissions. Biogas and biomethane production has already created 210,000 green jobs in Europe and is saving 60 million tons of greenhouse gas emissions per year, according to the European Biogas Association.

Rather surprisingly, research firm Corporate Knights says the answer is Schnitzer Steel Industries (SCHN.O), a U.S. scrap steel recycler, which has knocked wind turbine maker Vestas Wind off the top spot. "Schnitzer Steel is the first steel company to top the Global 100," said Corporate Knights CEO Toby Heaps. "If one of the world's dirtiest sectors can produce the most sustainable company in the world, then there is no excuse for any company in any sector not to step up." In 2022, the Global 100 beat the ACWI on an annual returns basis by 2.8% though both were significantly down on 2021 at -15.6% and -18.4% respectively. Between 2013 and 2022, the Global 100 returned 145.1% compared to 115.4% for the MSCI ACWI.

LONDON, Jan 10 (Reuters) - Goldman Sachs Asset Management, the fund arm of Goldman Sachs (GS.N), said on Tuesday it had raised $1.6 billion for its first private equity fund focused on investing in companies providing climate and environmental solutions. The final close of GSAM's Horizon Environment & Climate Solutions I comes as investors increasingly turn their attention to companies that can help in the world's fight against global warming. The fund, launched in 2021, provides so-called "growth capital" to companies further along in developing solutions in clean energy, sustainable transport, waste and materials, sustainable food and agriculture and ecosystem services. While investors have long invested in real assets such as wind and solar, or in early stage venture capital, the demand for the fund showed they were increasingly willing to back bigger companies, Pontarelli said. In December private equity firm General Atlantic launched a $3.5 billion climate fund while a month earlier Morgan Stanley Investment Management launched a $1 billion private equity strategy to invest in companies that will help reduce 1 gigatonne of carbon dioxide emissions.

Another was the requirement for companies to assess and disclose their impact and reliance on nature, despite the word "mandatory" being dropped from the final deal. While protecting nature comes at a cost, those companies that step up will attract more investors. "The big losers across the board will be 'business as usual'," said Eurasia Group senior analyst Franck Gbaguidi. A body representing some of the world's largest mining companies, including Glencore (GLEN.L) and Newcrest (NCM.AX), said disclosure would lead to a level playing field between sectors. The bill was ultimately calculated at $20 billion per year by 2025 and $30 billion per year by 2030.

This could change after negotiators at the U.N. nature summit in Montreal secured long-awaited formal support on Monday for a Global Biodiversity Framework to protect nature. Just 907.6 million euros are invested in Morningstar’s top 10 equity funds with biodiversity in their name. "We know the global economy and every company in it is negatively impacting biodiversity," said Tom Atkinson, portfolio manager at AXA Investment Managers, which has a 117 million euro Article 9 biodiversity impact fund. "At the moment we can only assess the negative impact (on biodiversity) of the companies in our portfolio, this is why more biodiversity funds don't exist and why regulation is arguably dragging." Three of the six largest biodiversity-named funds assessed by Reuters are overweight industrials versus the MSCI ACWI Index (USD).

☆ BNP Paribas Asset Management heads for the woods with Danish deal
▼ + stars: | 2022-12-08 | by ( Virginia Furness | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +1 min

LONDON, Dec 8 (Reuters) - BNP Paribas Asset Management said on Thursday it had bought a majority stake in a Danish firm specialising in woodland and agricultural investments. The purchase of the stake in International Woodland Company, which has more than $5.7 billion in assets under management, means BNP Paribas will for the first time offer its clients direct investment in woodland and agricultural land. Buying agricultural or woodland for financial returns remains niche but is growing, with the likes of BNP Paribas saying it has the potential to offer investors protection from inflation while also helping safeguard the natural environment. Asset managers have started to launch biodiversity and nature-focused funds but their size is tiny. Reporting by Virginia Furness Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and David EvansOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

LONDON, Nov 21 (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Investment Management said on Monday it had launched a new $1 billion private equity strategy to invest in companies which will remove 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere by 2050 or prevent that amount entering the atmosphere. Through the 1GT strategy, MSIM will invest in private companies in North America and Europe, whose activities aim to collectively prevent or remove 1GT of emissions. Investments will focus on the mobility, power, sustainable food and agriculture sectors and circular economy and deliver both financial returns and positive environmental impact, MSIM said. MSIM said it would also tie some of the 1GT investment team's compensation to the emissions performance of underlying investments. MSIM said it has already deployed $600 million of capital to companies seeking to mitigate climate change since 2015.

☆ France's EDF, Credit Agricole sign 1 bln euro nuclear loan
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-18 | by ( ) www.reuters.com time to read: 1 min

LONDON, Nov 18 (Reuters) - EDF (EDF.PA) and Credit Agricole (CAGR.PA) said on Friday they had signed a 1 billion euro ($1.04 billion) loan to finance the maintenance of nuclear power plants in France. The loan is part of EDF's major refit programme to improve the security and extend the operating life of nuclear reactors beyond 40 years. The deal is the first transaction in which the funds will be entirely dedicated to investments in EDF's nuclear activities, Credit Agricole and EDF said in a statement. ($1 = 0.9630 euros)Reporting by Virginia Furness; Editing by Jan HarveyOur Standards: The Thomson Reuters Trust Principles.

☆ Retailers acclerate shift to forest friendly fibres at COP27
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-14 | by ( Virginia Furness | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

REUTERS/Maxim ShemetovLONDON, Nov 14 (Reuters) - Retailers including H&M (HMb.ST), Kering <PRTP.PA and Inditex (ITX.MC) will purchase over half a million tonnes of low-carbon alternative fibres for clothing and packaging to help reduce global emissions, they said Monday. The announcement by 30 retailers coincides with COP27 climate talks taking place in Egypt until the end of this week to seek to step up ambition on curbing global warming. Retailers agreed to purchase 550,000 tonnes of alternative fibres - made from waste textiles and agricultural residues instead of forest fibres - which will prevent the release of around 2.2 million tonnes of greenhouse gas emissions, NGO Canopy, which convened the group, said. Lower carbon fibres make up a tiny fraction of the 7.5 million tonnes of man-made fibres produced each year, which Rycroft said was in part because of the challenge of accessing finance to scale new technologies. The agreement will help to unlock finance for 10-20 low footprint pulp mills to produce these alternative fibres by securing offtake aggrements from retailers, Canopy said.

☆ U.N., standard setter ISO launch net-zero guidelines
▼ + stars: | 2022-11-11 | by ( Virginia Furness | Hugo Dixon | ) www.reuters.com time to read: +2 min

LONDON, Nov 11 (Reuters) - The United Nations and standard setter the International Organization for Standardization launched a set of guidelines on Friday to help organisations construct net-zero emissions plans. As regulators increasingly focus on tackling weak corporate environmental claims, and investors call for harmonised global standards, the U.N. and ISO said its work would act as a core reference text on what to include in their net-zero plans. The ISO's guidelines were developed by a group of 1,200 organisations and experts from over 100 countries. While around 80% of global emissions are covered by net-zero pledges, many organisations lack a clear strategy, and the new ISO guidelines are intended to provide a practical guide. "The guidelines support clarity, we don't replace the ISSB but help companies navigate these multiple initiatives," said Emily Faint, net-zero policy manager at Our 2050 World, the group's secretariat.

Summary 85 insurers make pledge to extend climate coverComes as COP27 talks focus on issue of loss & damageAfrican Climate Risk Facility to cover 1.4 bln peopleSHARM EL-SHEIKH, Nov 9 (Reuters) - A group of over 85 African insurers has pledged to provide $14 billion of cover to help the continent's most vulnerable communities deal with climate disaster risks such as floods and droughts. Demand for compensation for the so-called 'loss and damage' caused by global warming has long been rejected by wealthy countries, wary of accepting liability for the emissions driving climate change. Against that backdrop, the African insurance plan is based around creating a scaleable, local market-based funding tool for resilience, the group said. "This is the African insurance industry saying let's come together and try and solve this ourselves," said Kelvin Massingham, director risk and resilience at FSD Africa, one of the partners behind the launch. The African Climate Risk Facility (ACRF) will provide protection for 1.4 billion people against floods, droughts and tropical cyclones by providing $14 billion of climate risk insurance by 2030 to African sovereigns, cities, humanitarian organisations and NGOs, the insurers said in a statement.

At the COP27 climate conference in Egypt, companies and country delegates are discussing ways of enhancing the market for green bonds, or bonds that are linked to projects deemed environmentally beneficial. POPULAR DESPITE THE 'GREENIUMS'Also known as "use of proceeds bonds," green bonds involve a company or government raising money for projects considered environmentally beneficial. SUSTAINABILITY-LINKED BONDSSustainability-linked bonds, or SLBs, comprise a newer and smaller market than green bonds. SOCIAL BONDS, SDG BONDS, AND MOREBeyond bonds focused on environmental outcomes, lie pools of money for related goals around social equity or fair living standards. Social impact bonds, or impact bonds, differ from social bonds in linking financial returns to the desired outcome.

SummarySummary Companies Money to help farmers adapt to climate impactsTo share tech innovations, help women farmersAdaptation finance a key focus of COP27 talksSHARM EL-SHEIKH, Egypt Nov 7 (Reuters) - The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation has pledged $1.4 billion to help smallholder farmers cope with the impacts of climate change, part of efforts at global climate talks in Egypt to scale up supply of so-called adaptation finance. The world is currently not doing enough to help poorer nations withstand the effects of global warming, the United Nations said last week. The Gates Foundation's commitment, announced at the COP27 conference in Sharm el-Sheikh, will help smallholder farmers in sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia build resilience into their work practices and improve food security. "The climate crisis is causing enormous harm every day as it jeopardizes entire regions of people and economies," Bill Gates, co-chair of the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, said in a statement. The foundation said its funding would go towards climate smart agriculture projects, new applications of digital technologies and other innovations, and to support women farmers.

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