With heatwaves breaking national records in Europe, climate change continues to be in the spotlight in reporting developments as the EU, the Vatican and investors insist on more transparency. In addition, we investigate how sustainability fits into your retirement plans and helps decision-making. Read on to find out more…
EU continues towards sustainable finance
The Technical Expert Group and the European Commission have been busy producing guidelines and reports as part of EU’s Sustainable Finance Action Plan to reorient capital flows towards sustainable investments. Recent notable developments, which have also received some critique, include the guidelines on corporate climate-related information reporting, the report on EU climate benchmarks and benchmark’s ESG disclosures, the EU Green Bond Standard and a new classification system for environmentally sustainable economic activities. Check out the reports or read an overview here.
Vatican weighs in on carbon pricing
Executives in energy and among investors recently signed joint statements organized by the Vatican on carbon pricing and climate transparency. The statements
– signed by companies such Shell, BlackRock and BP – support disclosing meaningful and material information regarding climate change and aligning with the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD). Read more here.
Aligning retirement assets with sustainability
Mercer and the World Business Council for Sustainable Development launched a new resource to better help companies align retirement assets with sustainability. The toolkit builds on last year’s release and is designed to help understand retirement plans and fiduciary responsibility. Alexander Cave, Co-Head of UK Defined Contribution for BlackRock: “As plan sponsors think about how to navigate a broad and sometimes confusing range of investment options it’s clear they need help on how to incorporate sustainability into their retirement plans.” Curious? Read more here.
Investors pushing for transparency on all fronts
A set of investors with USD $34 trillion in assets made an urgent call to keep temperatures at 1.5°C to world leaders at the G20 Summit in Osaka, Japan. Another set of 88 investors with nearly USD $10 trillion are pushing over 700 companies to disclose on environmental information including climate change, water security and deforestation data. The companies have been targeted due to their high impact and low transparency around these issues. Which companies are on the list? Find out more here.
Improving the quality of ESG information for decision-making
A new guidance is available to help companies improve the quality of, and confidence in, their environmental, social and governance information. The guide is published by WBCSD and FSR-Danish Auditors, and it helps companies understand the business case for improving the internal control environment and the quality of ESG data, as well as providing a framework for conducting a gap analysis and understanding where improvements are needed. Explore more.