Thematic Thoughts
Thinking about the big issues around how sustainability links into the world of finance
Is climate risk becoming uninsurable?
Insurers are withdrawing from higher risk regions. And the situation is likely to get worse.
Health equity: FDA panel support for sickle cell disease cure
The potential approval of a treatment for a historically under-served community is important.
Risk of taking ESG data as gospel
ESG data is useful as part of the decision-making process. However, it is not THE process.
The energy world is changing, and yet staying the same
The latest IEA World Energy Outlook has been published, and as always it's a useful source of both data and commentary. The headlines were encouraging. Full report here 👇🏾 World Energy Outlook 2023 – Analysis - IEAWorld Energy Outlook 2023 - Analysis and key findings. A report by the International Energy Agency.
Enel to fail its green bond emissions targets?
The Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute, one of our favourite sources on green bonds, recently (20th Oct) highlighted that Enel, the Italian Utility, looks likely to miss its Sustainability Performance Targets (SPT's) on 10 of its green bonds. The bonds have a total notional of €10.bn, so a
The growing gap between Brown and Green building value
Lucienne Mosquera, Managing Partner, at SustainCRE has published some interesting analysis on the growing evidence of a Brown discount in the global real estate market. According to their research "in their current form, around 97% of today’s commercial buildings will not support the transition to net zero. This
Sunday Brunch: sustainability is an intangible asset
Sustainability can be like a good brand. Without it your business can lack the quality that gives it a viable long term future. Intangibles may be invisible, but it doesn't make them any less real.
Hydrogen for UK home heating ruled out; still important for industry
The 2nd National Infrastructure Assessment report came out during the third week of October. This is particularly interesting: "The Commission’s analysis demonstrates that there is no public policy case for hydrogen to be used to heat individual buildings. It should be ruled out as an option to enable
The beauty of simplification
Sustainable investing evangelist Nawar Alsaadi had a really interesting post on LinkedIn comparing the internet portals of the 1990s to the ESG and sustainability data companies of today. I certainly remember the days of Lycos, Yahoo!, Altavista etc and as Nawar points out they built themselves on being one stop
Corporate lobbying needs closer attention.
... and the ecgi has done just that! Tom Gosling, Executive Director at the European Corporate Governance Institute (ecgi) recently interviewed Professor Michelle Lowry on her research paper ‘Firms’ Transition to Green: Innovation versus Lobbying’ We strongly encourage all Sustainability Professionals to watch the interview (the above video) and then read
Sunday Brunch: your secret weapon for your sustainable investment case?
Pitching sustainability investments or strategies to finance people is tough. Expectations Investing could be the Sustainability Professionals secret weapon.
Environmental litigation funding - increasing pressure to prevent?
US hedge fund Gramercy (along with some of its clients) has provided $552.5 million in litigation funding (a secured loan) to Pogus Goodhead, a UK law firm involved in a number of class action lawsuits with environmental links.