What’s Happening in Sustainable Finance: The Nuance of ESG Ratings, the Impact of Climate Change on Sport, and “Code Red” for Humanity
Discussing diverse sustainability and green finance topics including the momentum behind sustainability-linked bonds, the latest IPCC report as well as recent sustainable finance deals and transactions.
Know Where You Stand With Corporate ESG Benchmarking
In this post we discuss why companies should generate a corporate ESG benchmark against their peers, explain how they can go about this exercise, and highlight how they can use that information to advance and enhance their own corporate ESG initiatives.
Impact of Climate Change and Extreme Weather on Essential Services
Utilities have found themselves in the literal and metaphorical eye of the storm over the last year as hurricanes, floods and wildfires of increasing frequency and strength have wreaked damage on their assets. In late August, Storm Ida made landfall in Louisiana, USA and devastated the power grid lines. Entergy, the utility operating in Louisiana, supplying most of New Orleans, restored 90% of the supply only by mid-September, with 87,000 customers still without power.
What’s Happening in Sustainable Finance: Key EU Developments and the Untapped Market of Climate-Aligned Bonds
Covering summer developments in the global sustainable finance market, including the launch of the EU’s renewed sustainable finance strategy, the publication of the Social Loan Principles and the EU Green Bond Standard, and the continuing growth in the sustainable bond and loan markets.
Sustainability-Linked Debt Financing: The View from Down Under
For Australia, a country whose economy is historically rooted in heavy-emitting, hard-to-abate sectors, sustainability-linked debt financing could provide the spark needed to accelerate emission reductions and transition to a low-carbon economy.
What’s Happening in Sustainable Finance: The Push for Climate-Related Disclosures, Assessing SPT Ambitiousness, and More
Highlighting what’s new in the world of sustainable finance including the push for more company reporting climate-related risks, the emergence of more oil & gas companies exploring sustainable finance options and our tips on how companies can assess the ambitiousness of the targets used in sustainability-linked debt.
Moving the Needle: How Loans and Bonds Are Being Tied to Corporate Sustainability Performance
The tide continues to rise for the sustainable debt market, with sustainability-linked debt contributing to its steady growth. In this article we take a closer look at what’s driving market adoption of sustainability-linked debt and the principles and frameworks guiding market participants.
Financing Sustainability: Recent Trends in Sustainable Bonds, Linked Instruments and Disclosure
The “Financing Sustainability: Recent Trends in Sustainable Bonds, Linked Instrument and Disclosure” ebook shares insights on recent progress made by organizations bridging the gap between sustainability and finance.
What’s Happening in Sustainable Finance: Adopting the Climate Transition Finance Handbook, Recovery Through Sustainable Sovereign Debt and More
In this episode, we discuss ongoing diversification in the labeled bond market and highlight developments around transition finance guidance as well as new and updated principles in the loan market.
Sustainable Finance Insights on Transition Finance, Sustainability-Linked Bonds, Sovereign Bonds and More
In this episode, we discuss ongoing diversification in the labeled bond market and highlight developments around transition finance guidance as well as new and updated principles in the loan market.
Bringing Investors and Companies Together to Address the Climate Change Crisis
As Earth Day is around the corner on the 22nd of April, the Biden Administration is to convene a global climate summit. Following a historical precedent for several such events, since its inception in 1970, including signing the landmark Paris Agreement . We have seen positive developments since the Paris Agreement; societal actions to address some of the root causes of climate change have yet to suppress the negative trends . Historically, active ownership on climate change has focused on direct emissions from highly exposed sectors, such as fossil fuel and utility companies. However, the more complicated, less direct aspects of climate change have seen limited progress. Tackling such issues will see a strong need for collaboration from both countries and other key sectors, in particular, banking and finance. Banks are key to support this transformation; facilitating economic activity for positive change throughout the entire value chain is key.
Sustainability-Linked Loans 2021: The COVID-19 Effect, ESG Ratings & Continued Popularity
The sustainable finance market has seen an exponential increase in size and activity in recent years. Innovative offerings such as green, social, and sustainable bonds, green and sustainability-linked loans (SLLs), and most recently sustainability-linked bonds, have contributed to the market’s incredible growth. In 2020, boosted by varied financial needs and mainstream recognition of environmental, social and governance (ESG) parameters, global sustainable debt capital surpassed US$700 billion, a 30% increase compared to 2019. Part of this capital was channelled towards tackling the effects of COVID-19 as government agencies, supranational bodies and corporates borrowed money to support areas most affected by the pandemic, such as healthcare. This shift in fund usage in 2020 resulted in the rapid growth of social bonds and a commendable first year for sustainability-linked bonds.
Tracking the Progress on Gender Equality through Sustainable Finance
A key result of achieving UN SDG 5 - Gender Equality is global economic development. However, as women globally were disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic, the financing of activities that contribute to the empowerment and socio-economic advancement of women and girls will need to be accelerated to meet the goal by 2030. One option for creating targeted gender investment is the development and issuance of Gender Bonds that specifically support the advancement, empowerment, and equality of women.
Gender Equality in Supply Chains: An Opportunity to Increase Positive Impacts
It’s well known that inequalities between men and women still exist in the workplace. Women are less likely to fill senior leadership positions (29% in North America), earn less (81 cents per dollar in the US) and own fewer businesses (39% of businesses in the US) than men.