BlackRock goes green? Investment giant joins Climate Action 100+ amid controversy
GreenBiz
JANUARY 13, 2020
The move comes just a month after the firm was accused of being 'full of greenwash' by former US Vice President Al Gore.
Greenwashing Risk Grows in China ESG Funds
Chris Hall
JUNE 21, 2024
Chinese asset managers are improving ESG awareness, but weak regulation means green claims often don’t match reality, says Greenpeace. Greenwashing is a growing risk in the Chinese fund management sector, as marketing of ESG products runs ahead of standards and regulatory oversight, a new report by Greenpeace has found.
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Impact Cubed's New EU Taxonomy Solution Provides Global Insights Into Green Investments
3BL Media
FEBRUARY 22, 2022
These new rules, intended to counteract greenwashing, spell out the criteria for a green investment and require market participants to disclose how they are aligned with them. The outcome is a seamless approach to customized sustainable investing. Media Contact: Arleta Majoch, COO Impact Cubed Arleta@impact-cubed.com.
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Green investing: the risk of a new mis-selling scandal
Financial Times: Moral Money
FEBRUARY 19, 2022
ESG funds are popular, but research has found the sector is rife with greenwashing. Lawyers warn a reckoning is coming
Proposed EU Financial Services Commissioner to Push for Sustainable Investment Product Labels, Reduced Reporting Burdens
ESG Today
NOVEMBER 6, 2024
In her confirmation hearing on Wednesday, Albuquerque expressed her position that the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) could more effectively address greenwashing risk with the introduction of a labelling regime that communicated clearly the sustainability attributes of investment products.
EU wants to allow natural gas, nuclear in green investment
Renewable Energy World
FEBRUARY 2, 2022
BRUSSELS (AP) — The European Union on February 2 proposed including nuclear energy and natural gas in its plans for building a climate-friendly future, dividing member countries and drawing outcry from environmentalists as “greenwashing.” This anti-science plan represents the biggest greenwashing exercise of all time.
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Morningstar Sustainalytics Launches Solutions to Support CSRD, EU Taxonomy Compliance and Reporting
ESG Today
OCTOBER 9, 2024
EU markets regulator the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA) released its finalized guidelines on ESG Funds’ Names earlier this year, aimed at protecting investors from greenwashing risk, and detailing minimum standards and thresholds for funds using ESG and sustainability-related terms in their names.
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Take Five: Green Means Green
Chris Hall
MAY 17, 2024
European regulators have ratcheted up efforts to eliminate greenwashing from the investment sector. End of an era I – The fight against greenwashing inched ahead with the release of final guidelines for naming ESG- or sustainability-related funds by the European Securities and Markets Authority (ESMA).
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How Green are Recycled Funds?
Chris Hall
FEBRUARY 9, 2022
Asset managers decide to re-label existing funds as green investment vehicles for two reasons, according to Paul Lacroix, Head of Structuring at Smart Beta specialist investment firm Ossiam, an affiliate of Natixis. The first is client demand for investment solutions that are ESG-based,” he tells ESG Investor.
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Redefining ‘Business as Usual’: Three Ways to Overcome Barriers to ESG and Climate Finance
James Militzer
MAY 19, 2022
Meanwhile, most people – 79% overall and 90% of investors under age 45 – say they want to invest in socially and environmentally friendly ways. Even if they’re not actively greenwashing, most companies don’t publish information about their emissions or other environmental impacts. And more importantly, what can we do to bridge it?
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Green taxonomy proposal may overcome Canada's climate finance impasse
Corporate Knights
MARCH 7, 2023
The European Union, China, the United Kingdom and about 20 other countries are developing such taxonomies as a way of discouraging greenwashing and channelling investment to the climate transition. The EU’s taxonomy has been particularly controversial because of its inclusion of natural gas and nuclear as “green investments.”
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Take Five: Nature Takes New York
Chris Hall
SEPTEMBER 22, 2023
Anti-greenwashing action returned on both sides of the Atlantic this week. The US Securities and Exchange Commission toughened the Investment Company Act’s ‘ Names Rule ’ to ensure ‘ESG’, ‘green’, ‘net zero’ and other sustainability-themed funds deliver on the labels. What’s in a name?
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Is Indonesia Sinking to the Bottom of the Pack?
Chris Hall
SEPTEMBER 8, 2023
Inclusion of coal in green taxonomy would border on state-sanctioned greenwashing, says Christina Ng, Research & Stakeholder Engagement Leader, Debt Markets, and Putra Adhiguana, Energy Technologies Research Lead, Asia, at IEEFA. A huge controversy erupted last year when the EU labeled gas power plants as sustainable.
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Study of EU 100 largest companies shows streamlining and precision needed for optimal EU Green Taxonomy
We Mean Business Coalition
AUGUST 23, 2023
The EU Green Taxonomy was designed to accelerate the flow of money into green companies and projects, while simultaneously protecting investors from greenwashing accusations.
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ESG Today: Week in Review
ESG Today
JULY 10, 2022
European Lawmakers Defeat Move to Keep Nuclear and Gas out of Green Investment Taxonomy. K2 Launches ESG Certification for Fund Managers to Tackle Greenwashing Risk. BBVA, Fifth Wall Team up to Invest in Climate Solutions for Real Estate and Construction Industries. India Implements Single Use Plastic Ban.
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EU's new green finance rulebook aims to curb greenwash
Eco-Business
DECEMBER 11, 2019
The European Union Taxonomy creates a new framework for what qualifies as a green investment. What could this mean for the Asia Pacific region?
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SOEs Undermine Credibility of China’s Green Bonds
Chris Hall
DECEMBER 9, 2022
A key amendment requires 100% of the proceeds to fund green projects, instead of 50-70% previously. This is a big step for foreign investors who are eager to invest in China’s domestic green bond market but have concerns about greenwashing—inadvertently buying ‘green’ bonds that, in fact, support non-green projects.
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Take Five: Into the Stratosphere
Chris Hall
FEBRUARY 2, 2024
The European Markets and Securities Authority (ESMA) released an analysis that noted the “absence of harmonised and standardised reporting requirements” for private sector actors against SDG targets, and concluded that most funds claiming to contribute to SDGs neither explained clearly how they aligned, nor invested any differently to non-SDG funds.
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Banks Must Radically Change Climate Perspective
Chris Hall
FEBRUARY 5, 2024
It will also intensify its work on the effects of transition funding, green investment needs and transition plans, exploring the case for further changes to its monetary policy instruments and portfolios. These announcements followed the ECB’s third assessment of European banks’ progress on the disclosure of climate and environmental risks.
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Green Bonds Down the Drain
Chris Hall
OCTOBER 18, 2024
FTSE 100 heavyweights and high emitters Shell and BP are sizeable corporate bond issuers but are absent from the green bond markets, somewhat a reflection of a lack of credible green investment strategy and pipeline. But the green gilts require an update to their three-year-old framework to improve credibility.
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Divided We Fall: Why The Climate Community Can’t Afford To Break Apart
We Mean Business Coalition
JULY 3, 2024
There have been bad faith actors from the corporate world, greenwashing their activities, depleting the world’s resources, damaging the environment and wasting the planet’s and the climate movement’s time and energies. Many people are cautious about the intentions of companies that have committed to decarbonization and with some reason.
SFDR: Market Divided on Future of Article 8, 9 Funds
Chris Hall
DECEMBER 19, 2023
This split in opinion was showcased in a Morningstar Sustainalytics survey , in which 50% of respondents said they would like to see Article 8 and Article 9 categories replaced by labels, while 39% would prefer to keep Article 8 and Article 9 categories.
UK Must “Harness the Power” of its Green Taxonomy – GTAG
Chris Hall
SEPTEMBER 11, 2023
“Our recommendations aim to align these objectives with government policy, tracking progress, consumer protection, national and local actions, private sector engagement, and international efforts,” she said. “By carefully considering these aspects, the UK can harness the power of its taxonomy to drive sustainable and green investments while preventing (..)
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TNFD: A Pivot Point for Nature
Chris Hall
OCTOBER 6, 2023
It remains to be seen whether the FCA insists that firms link gaps with the requirements to prevent harm under this year’s consumer duty measures, and require firms to provide adequate evidence to indicate proper due diligence in avoiding intentional greenwashing.
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ING’s SDG Fund Champions “Impactful” Investment
Chris Hall
JUNE 8, 2023
ING Asset Management’s new SDG Impact Strategy will provide clients with exposure to companies that contribute specifically to the 17 UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), responding to strong demand for ‘dark green’ investments.
ICYMI, ESG Investing is Growing up in Public
Chris Hall
JUNE 10, 2022
Rampant criticism of green investment will only accelerate its maturity. In the two weeks since our last blog, and the three since the Financial Times’ Katie Martin first tweeted about Stuart Kirk’s fêted and ill-fated climate-risk speech, there’s been an avalanche of comment on the failings and misunderstandings of ESG investing.
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EU ‘green’ label for gas and nuclear sparks sustainable investing crisis
Corporate Knights
FEBRUARY 8, 2022
I’m reminded of this debate amid the current turmoil over a green investment label in Europe, a situation caused largely by the unwillingness of the sustainable investment sector to create its own industry standard.
UK FCA Warns on Green Fund Label Abuse
Chris Hall
OCTOBER 5, 2022
The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) will closely monitor funds’ use of incoming green investment labels, potentially stopping asset managers from using them in the event of misuse. . Regulator’s ESG head underlines need for market confidence, highlights importance of investor engagement. .
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FCA Challenged on Backdoor for Fossil Fuel Firms
Chris Hall
FEBRUARY 23, 2023
That role will be played by the UK taxonomy, and hopefully we will hear more about next steps for this in the upcoming Green Finance Strategy ,” she added.
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Asian Investors Embrace Net Zero Commitments
Chris Hall
FEBRUARY 24, 2022
“We have yet to see a shift in asset owners with clear investment mandates to include expectations on climate compared to 2020,” said the report, noting that respondents reported challenges in finding external managers with an established track record in successful climate-related investing, while also expressing concerns about greenwashing.
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Can Taxonomies Mobilise Capital for Indonesia’s Coal Phase-out?
Chris Hall
APRIL 21, 2023
The question is how stringent Indonesia should set the transition criteria, taking into account a pressing need to not only avoid charges of greenwashing or ‘transition washing’, but also build confidence in the country’s decarbonisation pathway.
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U.S. sustainable investing assets plunge by more than US$8 trillion
Corporate Knights
DECEMBER 14, 2022
The US SIF says this more cautious approach was at least partly triggered by recent US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) proposals to crack down on greenwashing by ramping up standards on the names and disclosure requirements for ESG funds. ESG] asset levels will likely move lower to a truer base of real sustainable investing.”.
Take Sustainability to Heart
Chris Hall
FEBRUARY 11, 2022
The intention is that this should help both the firms’ institutional clients (such as pension scheme trustees) and ‘end-user’ consumers (such as scheme members or retail investors) to more easily identify so-called green investments and direct their funds accordingly.
Global ESG assets drop 14% as industry tightens grip on sustainability claims
Corporate Knights
DECEMBER 1, 2023
As the COP28 meeting begins and the world looks to the financial sector to step up on the climate crisis, the global sustainable investment industry is finally coming to grips with allegations of greenwashing that have plagued it for years. where the tighter definitions have been felt most. “We
From Rhetoric to Practice
Chris Hall
MARCH 3, 2022
This not only creates considerable confusion among investors but exposes them to accusations of greenwashing, as well as the risk of holding investments that are not aligned with their own ESD/SDG requirements. The post From Rhetoric to Practice appeared first on ESG Investor.
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Take Five: Australia’s Long Haul
Chris Hall
AUGUST 19, 2022
Investors keen to explore Australia’s renewables potential, including green hydrogen , will be watching closely. Not if the SEC has its way. The watchdog has already used mis-selling rules to tackle misleading or overstated claims by managers and is also overhauling fund naming and disclosure rules.
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ESG Today: Week in Review
ESG Today
MARCH 31, 2024
This week in ESG news: Biden admin invests $6 billion in industrial decarbonization projects; Microsoft signs one of largest-ever biochar carbon removal deals; Mississippi orders BlackRock to ‘cease and desist’ from ESG investing; Walmart invests in 1 GW of new clean energy projects; Vanguard found guilty of misleading green investing claims in Australia; (..)
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Feds roll out climate requirements for companies that receive big government contracts
Corporate Knights
MARCH 1, 2023
Environmental groups complain that the group is rife with conflicts of interest in setting green investment standards for themselves, given their considerable reliance on oil and gas business. She says the inclusion of oil and gas projects in a transition framework would amount to greenwashing for an unsustainable source of energy.
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Businesses and investors need to roll up their sleeves and join the race to revive biodiversity
Corporate Knights
DECEMBER 20, 2022
Even if we quickly agree on disclosure frameworks and measurements around biodiversity, disclosures that are voluntary and not supported by regulation are vulnerable to greenwashing which is widespread in the ESG space. We need to encourage more targeted investments in nature-positive solutions that reverse biodiversity loss.
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Taking the Heat Out of COP27
Chris Hall
NOVEMBER 23, 2022
COP27 also saw the first fruits of UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres’ efforts to rid the finance and corporate sectors of greenwashing through increased scrutiny of net zero commitments. Announced by Guterres in Glasgow, the UN High-Level Expert Group on the Net Zero Emissions Commitments of Non-State Entities?
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Take Five: Two Out of Three Ain’t Bad
Chris Hall
APRIL 21, 2023
This sparked a plethora of comment this week warning of investor confusion and the prospect of a rethink among those SFDR Article 9 funds that downgraded over the past six months for fear of being accused by regulators of greenwashing. To quote a past contributor to ESG Investor , for fund managers, it’s still not easy being green.
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China’s ESG Policy Dash
Chris Hall
MARCH 29, 2023
Currently, there is no clear definition of what constitutes a “green” investment, which has led to a proliferation of green bonds that are not truly environmentally friendly.” ChinaSIF estimates that the size of China’s ESG market in 2022 was RMB 24.6 trillion (US$3.57 trillion) growing from RMB 18.4 trillion in 2021.
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Canada is falling behind in global race to attract sustainable investments: Guilbeault
Corporate Knights
NOVEMBER 2, 2023
Key jurisdictions, including the European Union, the United Kingdom, Australia, Japan and China, are moving forward with taxonomies that will guide green investment decisions and help avoid greenwashing.
Take Five: Green Bonds Scale New Peaks
Chris Hall
AUGUST 18, 2023
US sustainable investment non-profit Ceres remarked on its rapid economic impact, pointing to the creation of 170,000 green jobs already. The act also kickstarted an era of green investment competition.
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