Responsible Investor

the right example to other investment organisations.”
The pension fund of the Belgian East-Flanders region is investing in a €117m renewable energy project via the Gent-based solar energy specialist Enfinity1, reports ipe.com.
The fund said it was committing €5m to the project, which will install solar panels at offices in Belgium in the next few years.
Investments over the next decade in energy productivity could earn double-digit rates of return for investors, according to a report by the McKinsey Global Institute. The reports says energy productivity investments would cut global energy demand growth by at least half and achieve up to half of the reductions of greenhouse gas emissions experts say are required to prevent the world’s mean temperature from increasing by more than 2 degrees centigrade. The report said additional annual investments in energy productivity of $170bn up to 2020 could cut global energy demand growth by at least half—the equivalent of 64 million barrels of oil a day or almost one and a half times today’s entire U.S. energy consumption. It estimated that the average internal rate of return for such investments was in the order of 17%. Click here for report
Bill Lerach, the high-profile US securities litigation lawyer has been sentenced to two years in prison by a Los Angeles federal court. Lerach agreed to plead guilty in September 2007 to playing a role in an alleged kickback scheme at his former law firm Milberg Weiss. US prosecutors claimed Milberg Weiss shared legal fees with clients to induce them to quickly file securities class actions. Lerach is no longer a member of the San Diego firm, which is now known as Coughlin Stoia Geller

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Japan, Britain and the US are reported to be readying a special clean technology transfer fund in collaboration with the World Bank, which could be valued at more than $10bn. Japanese prime minister, Yasuo Fukuda, has revealed plans for the five-year “Cool Earth Partnership” fund, which aims invest $8bn in climate change mitigation and $2bn in helping developing economies switch to clean energy technologies. The fund is likely to promote development and adoption of low carbon technologies in developing economies such as India and China.
The Dutch government is reportedly debating whether to impose a ‘motivation’ test on sovereign wealth funds from the Middle East and Asia should they wish to take stakes in strategically important national companies, according to Dutch newspaper De Volkskrant. It follows similar debates in the US congress about stakes in US financial services companies acquired by sovereign funds.
The UK Association of British Insurers is petitioning the Financial Services Authority to oblige holders of contracts for difference (CFDs) – contracts that mirror the performance of a share or an index without any physical ownership – to declare what they hold over a certain level unless they do not intend to use the voting rights attached to the underlying shares. In response to a consultation launched by the FSA, the ABI said it wanted a regime to be devised for contracts-for-difference, which can sometimes mask the true influence of shareholders on a particular company.
The ABI wants all positions of 3% or more to be

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