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ESG Newsletter

      ESG Can Drive Europe Stock Returns to 12% Outperformance

      2021-09-23

      Funds Europe: The outperformance of European stocks with high ESG ratings can be as high as 12% a year - but in the US there is no outperformance attributable to ESG just yet, research suggests.

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      A Climate Reckoning Is Coming for the World’s Government Debt

      2021-09-23

      BNN Bloomberg: For years climate scientists have warned about the ferocious wildfires and hurricanes that are now overwhelming many communities. Today alarms are ringing about a related financial danger: risks lurking within government bonds, the biggest part of the global debt market.

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      Investors Managing $6.6 Trillion Call for Funding Carbon Removal

      2021-09-22

      BNN Bloomberg: Investors managing a collective $6.6 trillion are pressing the finance industry to boost funding for carbon-removal methods and standardize pollution credits as part of the effort to keep global warming within 1.5 degrees Celsius of pre-industrial levels.

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      Vanguard Comes Up Short on the Climate Front, Think Tank Says

      2021-09-22

      BNN Bloomberg: Vanguard Group Inc., one of the world’s largest money managers, says it cares “deeply” about the long-term impact of climate change. It joined an investor group that’s announced a net zero-emissions target and oversees pension funds for technology companies, where employees have a long tradition of being environmentally conscious.

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      Man GLG Unveils New Global Sustainability-focused Long / Short Hedge Fund

      2021-09-21

      Hedge Week: Man GLG, the discretionary investing unit of London-listed global alternative investment giant Man Group, has launched a new sustainability-focused long/short equity hedge fund which will trade across regions and sectors with a positive ESG bias.

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      Saudi Wealth Fund Plans Green Bond, Works With BlackRock on ESG

      2021-09-21

      BNN Bloomberg: Saudi Arabia’s $430 billion sovereign wealth fund plans to announce its first green debt issuance and is working with BlackRock Inc. on a framework incorporating environmental, social and governance principles.

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      Investment Consultants to Play "Crucial" Role In Investment Industry’s Push for Net Zero

      2021-09-21

      Institutional Asset Manager: A group of investment consultants with USD10 trillion in assets under advice, including Willis Towers Watson, Redington, and bfinance, have pledged to integrate net zero alignment across all their investment advice within the next two years.

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      Private Market Allocators Are No Longer Taking a ‘Wait-and-See’ Approach to ESG

      2021-09-20

      Institutional Investor: Private market investors have been slower than their public market peers to adopt environmental, social, and governance strategies — but that’s starting to change.

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      The Number of Female Founders in Asset Management Hasn’t Changed Much Since 1993. Marcia Page Wants to Fix That.

      2021-09-20

      Institutional Investor: When Marcia Page co-founded Värde Partners in 1993, she was one of the few female asset management owners. Thirty years later, not much has changed for women and minority groups in the industry — and Page has decided to do something about it.

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      ESG Goes Up in Smoke at L&G in Handling of Philip Morris’s Vectura Bid

      2021-09-16

      Evening Standard: LGIM bowed out with a whimper, announcing in a mealy-mouthed statement that it was agreeing to sell its 3.7% stake in the inhaler maker to Philip Morris International (PMI), the manufacturer of Marlboro cigarettes.

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      Ontario Teachers’ Targets 45% Cut in Carbon Emissions by 2025

      2021-09-16

      BNN Bloomberg: The Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan is aiming for a 45% reduction in the amount of carbon its investment holdings release into the atmosphere by 2025 as part of an effort to reach net-zero emissions within three decades.

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      Over 300 Female Managers Picked for 100 Women in Finance’s Flagship Cap Intro Event

      2021-09-16

      Hedge Week: 100 Women in Finance, the 20,000-member global industry association for hedge fund, alternatives and investment management professionals which aims to empower women within the global finance industry, has picked more than 300 female fund managers to participate in this year’s Global FundWomen Week, its annual flagship capital introduction event taking place from 20-24 September.

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      Sustainable Investments Could Make Up Majority of Global Private Wealth Portfolios in Coming Years

      2021-09-15

      Institutional Asset Manager: Research from Global Impact Solutions Today (GIST) and Barclays Private Bank, looks at data from 300 private wealth holders from 33 countries, with an average of USD833 million assets under management. 

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      Hedge Fund Activist Jeff Ubben Asks SEC to Mandate Carbon Pricing Disclosures

      2021-09-14

      Institutional Investor: Jeff Ubben, the activist hedge fund manager who founded Inclusive Capital Partners a little more than a year ago, is calling for the Securities and Exchange Commission to make companies include a price for carbon as part of their climate-related ESG disclosures.

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      Fund Managers and the Path Towards Net Zero Emissions

      2021-09-14

      Hedge Week: At the Paris Climate Change Summit in December 2015, 189 countries reached a binding international agreement on climate change, with the aim of “holding the increase in the global average temperature to well below 2C above pre-industrial levels and pursuing efforts to limit the temperature increase to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels.”

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      Engine No. 1 Unveils ESG Framework to Scrutinize Investments

      2021-09-13

      BNN Bloomberg: Engine No. 1, the activist investor that forced a board shakeup at Exxon Mobil Corp. to accelerate a move to clean energy, unveiled a new strategy using environmental, social and governance data to assess investments.

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      DWS Selloff ‘Excessive’ as Greenwashing Hard to Prove, Citi Says

      2021-09-13

      BNN Bloomberg: The market panic sparked by greenwashing allegations against Deutsche Bank AG’s asset manager DWS Group was “excessive” because regulators will have a hard time proving wrongdoing, Citigroup analysts led by Nicholas Herman said.

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      Greenwashing a Risk Among a Quarter of UK Equity Funds, Study Finds

      2021-09-13

      Funds Europe: While the UK funds industry has demonstrated strong progress in ESG risk management in 2021, greenwashing remains a risk, research has suggested.

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      KKR Appoints Chief Diversity Officer and Head of Talent Management

      2021-09-10

      Private Equity Wire: KKR has appointed Kerryann Benjamin as Chief Diversity Officer and Head of Talent Management, effective immediately. In this role, Benjamin will be based in New York and will drive KKR’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) strategy, a strategic priority for the firm, as well as KKR’s global talent development strategy.

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      Harvard's US$42 Billion Fund Will Stop Investing In Fossil Fuels

      2021-09-10

      Financial Post: Harvard University will stop investing in fossil fuels and instead use its giant US$42 billion endowment to support the green economy, joining a growing wave of investors moving away from pollutive industries.

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      SEC Crackdown on ESG Could Force Fund Managers to More Clearly Define Rules

      2021-09-09

      ESG Channel: U.S. regulators are cracking down on socially responsible investments that track factors like environmental, social, and governance principles for sustainable investing strategies that only appear sustainable in name only.

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      Investment Managers Want Companies with Sustainable Supply Chains

      2021-09-08

      Institutional Asset Manager: The report, published today, assesses supply chain sustainability through the lens of the investment manager. The research found that over eight in 10 (85 per cent) investment managers believe that businesses who do not implement supply chain sustainability initiatives will see share prices fall as a result over the next decade.

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      Investors with USD2.3tn In Assets Demand Standardised Environmental Data from Private Companies

      2021-09-08

      Private Equity Wire: A trend towards the privatisation of high-carbon assets, such as BP’s sale of its Alaska Oil and Gas business to Hilcorp Energy, risks diminishing transparency and performance on ESG issues since private companies do not have to comply with the reporting requirements of a listed entity. 

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      Wall Street's ESG Loans Charge Corporate America Little for Missed Goals

      2021-09-08

      Financial Post: When American Campus Communities Inc. announced the signing of a $1 billion sustainability-linked credit line in May, its executives decided to take a victory lap.

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      Infrastructure Giant in Australia Maps Out Carbon Reduction Plan

      2021-09-06

      BNN Bloomberg: One of Australia’s biggest infrastructure investors has pledged to almost halve carbon emissions across its portfolio of toll roads, airports and oil pipelines by the end of this decade as the global asset management industry steps up commitments to tackling climate change. 

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      Schroders Among Asset Managers Failing to Make Best Practice List

      2021-09-06

      Financial Post: BlackRock, Fidelity and M&G are among 125 firms endorsed under Britain’s tougher best practice code to stop “greenwashing” by asset managers, though Schroders and 63 others failed to make the grade, the Financial Reporting Council said.

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      US Institutional Investors Aim to Hire More Diverse Asset Managers Over Next Year

      2021-09-06

      Institutional Asset Manager: The Council on Foundations and Commonfund Institute surveyed 260 private and community foundations and endowments in the US, representing USD115 billion in assets.

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      SEC Chairman Gensler Orders Review of Funds’ ESG Disclosures

      2021-09-02

      BNN Bloomberg: The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission is considering more stringent disclosure requirements for investment funds amid concerns that some in the industry are making unfounded ESG claims.

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      Governance Outranks Climate in Pension Scheme Members’ ESG Priorities, Finds LGIM

      2021-09-02

      Institutional Asset Manager: The UK’s largest asset manager, Legal and General Investment Management (LGIM), has analysed the votes of individual members in its DC pension schemes. 

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      Challenges Ahead as UK Pension Schemes Face Mandatory Climate Reporting

      2021-09-01

      Institutional Asset Manager: From 1 October, pension schemes with more than GBP5 billion in assets will be required to start reporting on the climate impact of their investments.

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      Carbon Offsets Are Next Big Bet for $3.2 Billion Tribeca Fund

      2021-09-01

      BNN Bloomberg: One hedge fund in Asia is betting big on the growing interest in carbon offsets to protect forests, as industries and policy makers start to make efforts to cut emissions.

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      Big Four Accounting Firms Rush to Join the ESG Bandwagon

      2021-09-01

      California News Times: The sustainability boom has transferred trillions of dollars to environmental, social and governance funds, bringing new stakeholder-led agendas to corporate executive offices.

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      Neuberger Berman Creates Europe ESG Role

      2021-08-31

      Funds Europe: Sarah Peasey is based in London and joins from Legal & General Investment Management (LGIM), where she was head of responsible investment strategy – investments.

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      Public Companies in Asia Make Strides in Sustainability and Governance, but Challenges Persist

      2021-08-31

      Institutional Investor: The Asia-Pacific region’s notoriously low ratings on investment research firm MSCI’s environmental, social, and corporate governance scale are beginning to trend upward. 

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      Amazon’s Biggest, Hardest-to-solve ESG Issue May Be its Own Workers

      2021-08-29

      CNBC: Amazon founder Jeff Bezos raised a few eyebrows this summer when he returned to Earth after a historic space flight in July and gave a speech thanking company employees and customers, “because you paid for all of this.″

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      Funds Holding $10 Trillion Are Told Their ESG Goals Fall Short

      2021-08-21

      BNN Bloomberg: The world’s sovereign wealth funds, representing about $10 trillion in combined assets, will end on the wrong side of history if they cling on to strategies that fail to acknowledge how rapidly the planet is overheating, according to the woman who presided over the Paris Agreement.

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