‘One Planet’, Increased Pressure and Green Ratings
The week was dominated by French President Emmanuel Macron’s One Planet Summit, which saw a number of announcements and commitments from investors, governments and others to intensify efforts to meet the objectives of the Paris Climate Accord. Among these, Norway’s Storebrand Asset Management announced a new fossil free bond fund, while institutional investors including Northern Trust took the opportunity to step up pressure on the most prominent GHG emitters in the world via the Climate Action 100+ initiative. Meanwhile, NordSIP had the pleasure of sitting down with Carmen Nuzzo, the UN PRI Senior Consultant on its Credit Ratings Initiative, in Stockholm to learn of the work being done by Credit Rating Agencies to incorporate ESG and the challenges ahead. Sweden’s AP funds have been selected to New America’s Bretton Woods II list of the 25 most responsible asset allocators in the world, one of only nine from across Europe. And finally, from Sweden still, SEB Stiftelsen and the H&M Foundation contributed to the launch of the first fund of Sonanz, a new German boutique impact private equity fund of funds. (NordSIP).
Heard on E-Street
The embassies of Denmark, Finland, Norway and Sweden held the Nordic Energy Research Conference in Seoul to share Nordic Solutions on sustainable and renewable energy systems (Korea Herald). AXA has announced a plan to quadruple its investment target in environmentally-friendly projects to €12 billion by 2020 and increase its divestments from the coal industry (Energy Business Review). The Church of England stared down ExxonMobil to ensure more disclosure to shareholders on the company’s measures to combat climate change (Anglican Communion News Service),
Quote of the Week
“We cannot allow one unhinged President to distract and derail progressive, concrete actions. In fact, we still view North America as a priority growth market because even since Obama’s Clean Power Plan was ordered to roll back, US$ 30 billion has been invested in solar and wind projects, whilst the coal industry is walking dead: 30 gigawatts of coal power has been retired over the last three years”. Storebrand CEO Jan Erik Saugestad pulls no punches in announcing the company’s new fossil free bond fund at the ‘One Planet’ summit this week (Storebrand Press Release).
Question of the Week
Which Danish pension fund won the Investment & Pensions Europe Award for “European Pension Fund of the Year” recently?
Famous Last Words
“…I do respect [President Trump], I respect his decision. I’m not saying he doesn’t understand and doesn’t share the analysis. He [just] took a political commitment. In the meanwhile, we are gathering a lot of [U.S.] cities with the C40 funded by Mike Bloomberg… And we are gathering the private sector with a lot of U.S. investors” – Emmanuel Macron demonstrates his talent for diplomacy on the eve of his ‘One Planet’ Summit (CBS News).
Where there’s a will, there is a way. Have a great weekend,
Your NordSIP team
Image © NosorogUA – Shutterstock
