Low-carbon and multifactor investing have registered rapid growth in recent years but their combination in a single strategy represents a challenge as popular factors tilt portfolios towards carbon-related assets and carbon-intensive activities.
In this webinar, Responsible Investor will hear from Frédéric Ducoulombier, ESG Director of Scientific Beta about a portfolio construction that is consistent with the support of the transition to a low carbon economy, materially reduces exposure to transition risks and protects scientifically validated sources of financial performance:
ESG incorporation philosophy protecting against greenwashing and datamining.
Decarbonisation approaches incentivising the transition and reducing asset stranding and carbon intensity risks.
Construction steps delivering Low Carbon multi-smart factor indices with high resilience to transition risks and outperformance relative to market indices.
Join the webinar and put your questions to the smart beta investment specialist.
Speakers:
Frédéric Ducoulombier, ESG Director, Scientific Beta
Tony Hay, Publisher, Responsible Investor
From pioneering Clean Energy Bond programs to flexing their stewardship muscle on key social issues during the proxy season, public sector pensions are waking up to their influence in the capital markets. This unique webinar will explore the market power of public sector pension funds in accelerating the energy transition, enhancing corporate governance standards at the world’s largest corporations, and in addressing key social issues holding back economic growth - inequality and systematic under-investment in human capital development, clean energy and transport infrastructure.
Join us to learn how state and municipal treasurers are responding to key ESG themes, and how public pension funds are assessing the reality of sustainable investing. Find out who is leading the way, and what lessons have been learned en route to more robust ESG integration and long-term value creation.
SPEAKERS
● Tobias Read, Oregon State Treasurer
● Randy Rice, General Treasurer of the State of Rhode Island
● Millicent Budhai, Director of Corporate Governance, NYC Comptroller's Office
Moderator: Paul Verney, Journalist, Responsible Investor
Blended finance and the SDGs: examining how public and private capital can work together for positive societal and financial outcomes
The OECD defines blended finance as “the strategic use of development finance for the mobilization of additional finance towards the SDGs in developing countries.”
This RI webinar will drill down into key areas of the blended finance discussion.
If achieving the SDGs requires a massive infrastructure build-out to provide clean water and sanitation (SDG6), affordable and clean energy (SDG7), and health centres and hospitals in urban and rural areas (SDG3), how can the blended finance of public and private money actually do this, and through what structures/terms?
Expert speakers will present case studies on the integration of blended finance structures into existing investment strategies and explain how it can yield a positive return both for investors and communities.
Speakers
Sharon Spiegel, Chief, Policy Analysis & Development Branch, Financing for Sustainable Development Office, Department of Economic and Social Affairs, United Nations
Mafalda Duarte, Director, Climate Investment Funds
Ladé Araba, Managing Director, Africa Region, Convergence
Jennifer Pryce, President and CEO, Calvert Impact Capital
Moderated by Vibeka Mair, Responsible Investor
Join Responsible Investor and FTSE Russell for an interactive webinar on green real estate!
Climate change poses clear and material risks to real estate assets with the potential to impact return profiles. Real estate investing has historically lacked the appropriate tools to allow investors to assess their exposure to climate risk and to integrate it effectively in their investment strategies.
To help address this gap, FTSE Russell developed the FTSE EPRA Nareit Green Indexes to allow investors to identify real estate companies with strong sustainability performance. These indexes are a sustainability-focused extension to the FTSE EPRA Nareit Global Real Estate Index Series, a leading series of listed real estate benchmarks with approximately US$341billion of assets tracking this series.*
Data as of December 31, 2017 as reported on April 2, 2018 by eVestment for institutional assets, Morningstar for retail mutual funds, insurance products, and ETFs, and additional passive assets directly collected by FTSE Russell.
· Listed Real Estate market trends in Developed markets, specifically Europe and North America
· Facing the sustainable real estate challenge – what is important to know
· The world’s largest asset class – addressing the investment data gaps
· Real Estate Indexes have the ‘green’ light - case for integrating sustainability considerations in Real Estate benchmarks
· Building for a green economy future – where to from here
· Q&A from the audience
Speakers include:
Ali Zaidi, Director of Research & Indexes, European Public Real Estate Association (EPRA)
Calvin Schnure, Senior Vice President, Research & Economic Analysis, National Association of REITs (Nareit)
Jaakko Kooroshy, Head of Innovation and Standards, Sustainable Investment, FTSE Russell
Moderated by Tony Hay, Publisher, Responsible Investor
Three years ago, the United Nations adopted the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) as a global call to action for positive change. Ever since, the global investment community has become increasingly eager to achieve some kind of “SDG alignment”.
Near the anniversary of the establishment of the SDGs, this RI/ISS-ESG webinar provides an overview of how impact investing connects to the SDGs, and how investors are measuring effectiveness.
What drives investors to choose the SDGs as a framework for investing and how are they approaching this?
What tools are available to identify and measure companies’ contributing to the SDGs? Should SDG investments be focusing on products & services or on companies’ operations?
What are the challenges to investing in the SDGs? Are the SDG even investable in mainstream investment, given the fact that many of the SDGs and targeting problems in emerging markets that are probably rather solved by modest projects rather than large listed corporates?
Is there a risk of SDG-washing and sticking SDG labels on existing mainstream investments? How can this be prevented?
Speakers
Ladislas Smia, Co-head of Responsible Investment Research, Mirova
Piet Klop, Senior Advisor Responsible Investment, PGGM
Jennifer Signori, Senior Vice President, ESG and Impact Investing, Neuberger Berman
Julia Hakke, Head of Responsible Investment Sales, ISS ESG
Moderater:
Vibeka Mair, Senior Reporter, Responsible Investor
How can investors think about sustainability in their wider corporate bond portfolios, and how are regulators and other public bodies beginning to address climate risk in bond markets?
In this webinar, our experts discuss the current efforts being made to integrate ESG into the asset class and some of the lessons learnt so far.
Speakers:
Tomas Morsing, Head of Quant Strategies, Swedish pension fund AP2
Carmen Nuzzo, Senior Consultant, ESG in Credit Ratings Initiative, PRI
Lev Dynkin, MD, Head of the Quantitative Portfolio Strategy Group, Barclays Research
Moderated by Sophie Robinson-Tillett, Deputy Editor, Responsible Investor
Further Readings:
https://www.investmentbank.barclays.com/our-insights/ESG-investing-yields-positive-returns-in-select-bond-markets.html?icid=ESG2_RIwebinar
Lending books are arguably where the rubber hits the road for originating sustainable projects, but how do banks and other lenders identify ESG risks in loan books, and stimulate opportunities to lend to sustainable projects?
In this sessions, our experts will discuss a number of initiatives that have been started to address mortgage lending, price adjustments and assessing risk exposure.
Speakers confirmed:
Jakob Thomä, Director, 2° Investing Initiative
Florence Palandri, Climate Finance Analyst, 2° Investing Initiative
Roland Mees, Director of Sustainable Finance, ING Bank
Luca Bertalot, Secretary General of European Mortgage Federation, European Covered Bond Council
Moderated by Sophie Robinson-Tillett, Deputy Editor, Responsible Investor
A growing number of investors are screening out companies from lending portfolios because of exposure to climate change and other sustainability risks, but sovereign portfolios are often not assessed in the same way. This webinar looks at why: how serious are the sovereign default risks arising from ESG, how can they be quantified, and do investors have a responsibility to engage with governments on policy through bond buying?
Speakers confirmed:
Gabriel Torres, Vice President & Senior Credit Officer for Sovereigns, Moody's
Lupin Rahman, Head of Emerging Market Sovereign Credit, PIMCO
Bob Buhr, Honorary Research Fellow, Imperial College Business School
Moderated by Sophie Robinson-Tillett, Deputy Editor, Responsible Investor
One of the most significant recommendations being pursued in the EU’s Action Plan is ‘to introduce a common sustainable finance taxonomy to ensure market consistency and clarity’.
In what way would it work?
How can such a taxonomy be both flexible and have integrity for identifying activities, assets and revenue segments that deliver on key sustainability goals?
How could the EU and its Member States apply relevant rules, and who would regulate them?
What would that mean outside of the EU?
This webinar will answer these issues and many more, and let you pose your own questions on the Taxonomy.
Speakers:
Martin Spolc, Head of Unit, Capital Markets Union, DG Financial Stability, Financial Services and Capital Markets Union at the European Commission (EC),
Nathan Fabian, Chief Responsible Investment Officer, Rapporteur of the Taxonomy Group, PRI
Moderator: Sophie Robinson-Tillett, Deputy Editor, Responsible Investor
A successful ESG stewardship strategy requires investors to proactively address ESG risks in their portfolios. Over the last three years, climate change has become a top ESG shareholder proposal issue. Many shareholder proponents encourage companies to align their reporting with the recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, set GHG emission reduction targets, conduct 2°C scenario analyses and disclose on climate impact. However, the percentage of companies providing such disclosures remains generally very low.
This webinar gives an overview of emerging climate change topics from the 2018 proxy season and how investors can proactively identify climate-related risks and opportunities in their portfolios.
What are the takeaways from the 2018 proxy season and Climate Week NYC 2018?
Are we any closer to meaningful scenario analysis?
How is data developing to help investors capture physical climate risk?
Where are we at with TCFD reporting?
How important is collaboration on these issues, through things like ClimateAction100+?
Moderator: Sophie Robinson-Tillett, Deputy Editor, Responsible Investor
Confirmed Speakers:
Maximilian Horster, Managing Director, Head, ISS-Climate
Anne Simpson, Director, Board Governance and Strategy, reporting to the CEO, CalPERS and Chair ClimateAction 100+
This webinar is produced by Responsible Investor, for dedicated news and events on ESG and sustainable finance check out our website at www.responsible-investor.com