Responsible Investor

Eleven microfinance groups that lend to nearly 26 million people have agreed to publicly report their annual interest rates, amidst accusations that the once-charitable sector is becoming increasingly commercialized. Nobel Peace Prize winner Muhammad Yunus, said this week at the 11th annual Microcredit Summit Campaign conference in Bali, Indonesia: “If you are making profits you are moving into the same mental mind-set as loan sharks.” Yunus says he believes interest rates should be set to cover costs, not maximize profits.
Kent County Council, which oversees the £2.6bn Kent Pension Fund, has reportedly come under pressure from the Green party, which have accused the fund of having £109.5m invested in companies it claims have links with Zimbabwe. The Green party said the groups included Anglo American, Rio Tinto, oil companies BP and Shell and banks Standard Chartered and Barclays. Stuart Jeffrey, Green Party campaign officer, said: “The Mugabe regime has been condemned by all four major parties in the UK. Yet we have an utterly bizarre situation where Kent county councillors refuse to consider the effects of their inaction.”
Seperately, Waltham Forest council has pledged to try and act more ethically in its business practices following revelations last year that its pension fund had invested in companies which do business with Burma. At a full council meeting members passed a motion which instructs officers to report back on areas where they may be ethical concerns.
Eight Chinese NGOs have awarded the first Chinese Green Banking Innovation Award to China Industrial

Bank. The award is the first-ever in China specifically about green banking and sustainable finance. It was nominated and voted by eight NGOs: Green Watershed, Friend of Nature, Institute of Public & Environmental Affairs, Green Earth Volunteer, Global Environmental Institute, Civil Society Watch, China Development Brief and Green Volunteer League of Chongqing. SynTao, the Chinese corporate social responsibility consultant, acted as an advisor to this award.
Japan is expected to launch a trial carbon emissions trading scheme in October, according to the government.
Seperately, the Australian Government has issued released proposals for a carbon emissions trading system to start in 2010 following the publication of a green paper proposes that emissions from energy, transport, industrial processes, waste, and oil and gas production would be covered by the cap and trade system. The US states of California, Arizona, New Mexico, Oregon and Washington have also set in motion plans to create a combined carbon trading system along with Canadian provinces British Columbia, Quebec, Ontario and Manitoba. The scheme, part of the Western Climate Initiative launched in 2007, will initially be targeted at large polluters such as utilities, oil refineries and heavy industry from 2012, with emissions from transport and other fuels included from 2015, reports Maplecroft, the risk analysis group.
Graham Sinclair, former manager of the UN Principles for Responsible Investment Project in emerging markets and developing countries, is

Not a member? Register here »