Largest Energy Companies, Green Bonds, ESG Scores, and Recycling
Here are 5 things you might have missed this week:
Solar and wind producer NextEra Energy became the largest U.S. energy company by market value surpassing ExxonMobil's value-
NextEra Energy, the world’s largest solar and wind power generator, has surpassed ExxonMobil in market value, jumping from a $32 billion valuation in October 2010 to more than $145 billion on Wednesday.
Once the world's most valuable company, ExxonMobil has lost more than half its value since the start of the year.
Its market cap has dwindled from a peak of more than $500 billion in 2007.
All Green Bonds Are Not Created Equal-
How Morgan Stanley looks through the labelling and critically assesses sustainable bonds (labelled debt instruments where the issuer has committed to financing certain environmental and/or social objectives) that come to market.
The assessment covers a confusing mosaic of labels, a multiplicity of factors related to the bond issuance, and the alignment of the issuance with market frameworks.
ESG Scores Aren't Enough to Achieve a Net-Zero Future-
Investing to match your values is actually pretty different from methodically picking out the companies best able to survive in a sustainable, climate-aligned future.
Just like in traditional investing, there are dozens of strategies you can use to be an ESG investor.
"The key is to ask what societal shifts need to happen to make a company’s sector truly sustainable, whether it will benefit from that transition, and whether its leaders are long-term thinkers with the levers, coalitions and partnerships to make change happen. In other words, it’s less about now and more about later."
Source: https://financialpost.com/pmn/business-pmn/esg-scores-arent-enough-to-achieve-a-net-zero-future
Measuring Stakeholder Capitalism: Towards Common Metrics and Consistent Reporting of Sustainable Value Creation-
The World Economic Forum and the Big Four accounting firms Deloitte, EY, KPMG and PwC have released a reporting framework to align corporate financial reporting with environmental, social and governance, or ESG, indicators.
The metrics are deliberately based on existing standards, with the near-term objectives of accelerating convergence among the leading private standard-setters and bringing greater comparability and consistency to the reporting of ESG disclosures.
Helping companies make good on their commitments to stakeholders-
Ceres, a sustainability nonprofit organization, has created a roadmap for companies with one-year, five-year and 10-year goals across three areas: climate action, steps to integrate sustainability into business operations, and actions to create systems change, such as public policy engagement and multi-stakeholder collaboration.
It’s also a roadmap for investor expectations. “We don’t have a decade to wait for companies to take action. There are critical things that need to happen in the next five years.”
One more thing: NPR's podcast, Planet Money, on why we have all been recycling plastic for 30 years and whether it has made any economic or environmental sense to do so.
Listen to the podcast here- https://www.npr.org/2020/09/11/912150085/waste-land
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