Green Supply Chains, G7, Investor Watch, Sovereign ESG, PE, and Plastics
Here are 5 ESG insights you might have missed this week:
The Green Boom-
A great green investment boom is under way, but supply-side problems are underappreciated.
A decade ago this would have seemed pure fantasy. Today companies are rushing to meet the demand. A battalion of European energy companies led by Equinor, Orsted and Royal Dutch Shell are competing to build in American waters. Equinor is backing a new wind-tower factory in Albany. Dominion Energy, a utility, is teaming up with a Texan shipbuilder to construct a vessel that can install turbines along America’s east coast.
However, the fact that wind farms, solar farms and battery-powered vehicles are now cost-competitive does not mean they can be built at whatever pace politicians choose. They require raw materials—sometimes, as with the Haliade-X turbines, in prodigious amounts—siting permits, infrastructure for transmission, recharging and the like.
Source: https://www.economist.com/briefing/2021/06/12/the-bottlenecks-which-could-constrain-emission-cuts
G7 Backs Making Climate Risk Disclosure Mandatory-
Finance ministers from the G7 countries endorsed mandatory climate disclosures based on the framework from the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD).
Group of Seven (G7) rich countries backed moves to force banks and companies to disclose their exposure to climate-related risks on Saturday, a measure seen as vital to efforts to safeguard the financial system from climate change shocks.
The push towards mandatory reporting is being discussed by the wider group of G20 nations and some believe an international agreement on it could be reached by the time of the U.N. Climate Change Conference in Glasgow starting Nov. 1.
Sovereign ESG investing-
There is a lack of clarity around frameworks for scoring sovereign ESG performance, industry practices, and the definition of sustainability itself.
This World Bank publication consists of two independent reports. The first part is written by the World Bank and takes stock of the current sovereign ESG investing framework and proposes improvements. The second part presents a survey on ESG practices among emerging market (EM) sovereign debt investors conducted by J.P. Morgan (JPM), which launched the first EM sovereign ESG index in 2018.
This publication is a result of the World Bank's proactive engagement with stakeholders on pertinent sovereign ESG issues and is part of a publication series under the auspices of the Global Program on Sustainability (GPS).
The Changing Climate for Private Equity-
By Ceres and the SustainAbility Institute by ERM, a report aiming to accelerate action on the climate crisis by unlocking the potential for private equity to help attain the goals of the Paris Agreement.
The report outlines the direction of the private equity sector with respect to climate. The report is driven by learning derived from in-depth interviews with representatives of 27 top private equity actors and complementary research. It finds the industry facing increasing pressure to align investment activity with carbon reduction targets and other climate-related goals as well as in need of better guidance and tools to support the development and implementation of climate-aligned investment strategies.
Given private equity firms’ sway, the report examines how they view climate risk and opportunity and what they expect of companies in their portfolios in terms of net zero goals and climate risk management and disclosure.
Source: https://www.ceres.org/resources/reports/changing-climate-private-equity
Twenty Firms Produce 55% of World’s Plastic Waste, Report Reveals-
Plastic Waste Makers index identifies those driving climate crisis with virgin polymer production.
ExxonMobil is the greatest single-use plastic waste polluter in the world, contributing 5.9m tonnes to the global waste mountain, concludes the analysis by the Minderoo Foundation of Australia with partners including Wood Mackenzie, the London School of Economics and Stockholm Environment Institute. The largest chemicals company in the world, Dow, which is based in the US, created 5.5m tonnes of plastic waste, while China’s oil and gas enterprise, Sinopec, created 5.3m tonnes.
Eleven of the companies are based in Asia, four in Europe, three in North America, one in Latin America, and one in the Middle East. Their plastic production is funded by leading banks, chief among which are Barclays, HSBC, Bank of America, Citigroup and JPMorgan Chase.
One more thing: From Visual Capitalist- So when are countries committed to reaching net zero carbon emissions, and how serious is their pledge?
Find the infographic here- https://www.visualcapitalist.com/race-to-net-zero-carbon-neutral-goals-by-country/
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