News

• $26trn of investors sign up to climate engagement initiative

  12 December 2017

  More than 200 global institutional investors with over $26.3 trillion in assets have joined forces in a collaborative engagement initiative to drive swifter corporate action on climate change.

• European Commission 'looking positively' at lower capital charges for green loans

  12 December 2017

  The European Commission is favourably disposed to the possibility of lowering capital charges on bank loans for climate-friendly projects, according to its vice president, Valdis Dombrovskis.

• ING targets "close-to-zero" coal exposure by 2025

  12 December 2017

  ING has introduced a "sharpened" coal policy that will see the bank gradually phase out nearly all lending to coal-related businesses by 2025.

• Major investors demand more action from ESG index providers

  12 December 2017

  Equity index providers were urged by two of the world's largest investment organisations to develop more 'useable' indexes based on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues.

• China gets tough with corporate polluters

  12 December 2017

  From 2018, the Beijing government is to insist that all listed companies and bond issuers in China disclose the environmental risks associated with their operations or explain why they are not doing so.

• Shareholder action forces oil giant Exxon to increase climate disclosures

  12 December 2017

  ExxonMobil is to start publishing reports on how policies to reduce global warming affect its profits, a move which marks a major victory for shareholder action on climate change, according to New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli.

• Corporates confirm their commitment to green bonds

  12 December 2017

  A group of Europe's largest industrial issuers of green bonds have made a formal pledge to promote the future growth of the market.

• BNP to launch voluntary carbon market tool

  11 December 2017

  A service to encourage investment in voluntary carbon offsetting projects is to be launched in mid-2018 by French bank BNP Paribas.

• Societe Generale follows BNP in walking away from oil sands

  11 December 2017

  Societe Generale has committed €100 billion towards financing the energy transition by 2020 and will stop lending to oil sands and Arctic oil projects.

• Investors demand ESG rating is published alongside credit rating

  11 December 2017

  A group of institutional investors have signed a declaration urging bond issuers to communicate their environmental, social and governance (ESG) rating in addition to their credit rating.