In mid-2021 The Blended Capital Group’s
ESG Law Advisory Team will publish a report
exploring ESG developments across the global
legal community. This 16-page briefing flags key
trends and findings to date based on a survey of
55 law firms worldwide. The survey will provide
the foundation for the report later this year to be
launched at an UNCTAD World Investment Forum
online event. In summary: ESG has come roaring
into the legal world, accelerating since 2018, and
many firms are racing to polish their credentials
and to position for new ESG business.
This report showcases a wide array of finance instruments that
help channel funding into the solutions necessary for the transition to a low-carbon economy. The publication is the result of a
joint effort of Swiss Sustainable Finance (SSF) and its broad and
diverse network. Accompanied and guided by a high-level Steering
Committee throughout the process, SSF has gathered expertise
from practitioners within the Swiss sustainable finance landscape
to produce a report with concrete examples of how the financial
sector can support the decarbonisation of our society in a variety
of ways.
A European Perspective on Achieving a Sustainable and Inclusive TransformationConversations about stakeholder capitalism are no longer new to the boardroom. Over the last two years, both companies and investors have endorsed the need to embrace a more holistic and inclusive approach to capitalism that considers the welfare of all stakeholders, including investors, employees, customers, business partners, local communities, and society at large. COVID-19 has brought new urgency to the question: What is the role of business in society beyond profit maximization and regulatory compliance?
In this report, Duncan Austin, who has had a 25-year career as a sustainability economist and investor, argues that ESG is caught in the middle of a deep struggle between economics and ecology, but that we may all be ‘economist and ‘ecologist’...the answer may lie in how we use our brains.
Energy use in buildings contributes more than 17.5 percent to global greenhouse gas emissions,
and their construction is a key driver behind demand for steel and cement, which together are
responsible for another 10.2 percent of emissions. Hence, decarbonising the real estate sector is
unavoidable in order to reach net zero emission targets by 2050.
The European Union is bringing forward a raft of regulation to bring the sector on track. This
includes the potential addition of buildings’ emissions in the EU Emission Trading System (EU ETS),
and directives for energy performance and sustainable construction materials. As a result, existing
building stock without extensive retrofits, and non-aligned new housing, are at high risk of significant
losses in value.
In the financial, corporate and academic arenas, the terms Sustainable and Responsible are used without distinction to describe ESG policies. It should be noted, however, that the notions of Sustainability on the one hand, and Corporate Social Responsibility on the other, are alternative concepts and have never been properly differentiated. This distinction could prove useful in the differentiation of the scoring vs rating approach, which would then identify two separate fields of ESG assessment (applicant-pay model vs investor-pay model), and therefore form two different types of regulatory and legislative actions.
The 300 Club has taken the current pandemic as a moment for reflection on the state of the industry. During this crisis, we have all been made acutely aware of the fact that companies should not just be primarily profit generating machines but purposeful providers of solutions to the needs and wants of real people. The consequence of fulfilling those purposes are long term sustainable returns to investors.
This new report sees the United Nations build on these Principles, mapping the current state of ocean finance and the transition required at the start of the UN Decades of Ocean Science for Sustainable Development and Ecosystem Restoration. The report reveals the current trends in lending, underwriting and investment activities which impact the ocean, the frameworks and financial instruments that are successfully addressing ocean sustainability, and highlights new opportunities and gaps in the market. It looks across five key ocean sectors, chosen for their established connection with private finance.
Puts forward six key enablers which could be advanced by all systemic shapers to accelerate the sustainable development of the seafood industry - from unlocking sustainable finance and ratifying international conventions, to moving beyond data disclosure, rewarding progress, and incorporating wider food system dimensions into both policy and sustainability-related services.
From houses to highways, investing in Real Assets – comprising of Listed and Non-listed Real Estate and Listed Infrastructure – is about much more than attractive and predictable cashflows. The building and operation of Real Estate and Infrastructure forms the backbone of the economies, societies and communities in which people will live and work, now and in the future.