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LATEST ARTICLES
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Funded by green bonds, decarbonized assets are driving emissions upwards in other sectors that supply the necessary raw materials and shipment services. A capital markets transition label ought to factor this in.
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Banks need to start quantifying the legal risks of both climate action and inaction.
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The London Stock Exchange Group’s head of sustainable finance strategic initiatives wants climate data to redefine the act of indexing.
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The World Bank is issuing ‘outcomes’ bond structures for niche sustainability themes and with new financing mechanisms. Like blue bonds, they are probably going to need some rule-setting.
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A team of once-public sector bankers and officials is launching a new private equity fund that aims to identify ‘climate winners’ from the transition to a decarbonized economy. It has identified key industries but its central thesis is regulation.
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The global clubs charged with defining what pace of transition is both scientifically and politically acceptable are only as good-willed as their members.
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Failure to mobilize the finance needed to meet the Paris Agreement will be devastating. As those flows to overleveraged countries and companies now stall, radical steps are needed.
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Regulators are starting to take a more messaging-based approach to sustainable finance, but stopping greenwashing won’t automatically lead to a transition to net zero.
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The 28th Conference of the Parties starts in Dubai tomorrow. Dubbed the finance COP, conflicting priorities could turn it into a fossil fuel investor roadshow.
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Big banks are scrutinized on environmental, social and governance matters today as never before and they must often walk a tightrope between competing interests. Citi is no exception.
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Data hoarding, ESG illiteracy and credit risk are roadblocks for regional banks looking to establish sustainable supply-chain financing programmes in the Gulf, just as COP28 approaches.
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MUFG’s vast balance sheet has the potential to make a considerable difference to Japan’s net-zero ambitions. But the bank won’t be pulling back from polluters, arguing that money needs to flow to where emissions are, not away from them.
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Farmland acquisition for transition agriculture has proved attractive to the climate-focused investment management franchises of large asset managers. Will real-asset investors follow suit?
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With Article 6 mechanisms formalized, project-based compliance carbon markets could take over the emissions offsetting industry, leaving participants in the voluntary carbon market stranded.
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Jordan Kuwait Bank has issued the country’s first green bond, a key milestone for sustainability driven capital investments in the country. But getting momentum going in the sector will be an uphill battle.
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Standard Chartered’s new chief sustainability officer is not shying away from the reality of what the energy transition looks like in emerging markets.
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Risk-sharing mechanisms could help drive confidence in the voluntary carbon market, but insurance products are scarce.
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What will UBS’s post-merger sustainable finance strategy look like?
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Solar thermal technology could offer cheap carbon-free heat for manufacturers. But tech developers are stuck in a financing gap between venture capital and project finance that will be harder to fill after recent bank failures.
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The EU green bond standard is understandably broad. But because of this, the limits between sustainable and transition finance remain unclear.
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The recent update to the green taxonomy and implementation of the SFDR RTS have received a mixed reception in parts of the EU.
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Asset managers are spooked by mandatory disclosure regulations coming into force in January. This is good news for the anti-greenwashing campaign, not so much for biodiversity lovers.
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COP27 placed green hydrogen production at the top of the global net-zero agenda. Banks want to fund this technology, but energy supply, cost and regulatory uncertainty are jeopardizing its future as the decarbonization solution for hard-to-abate sectors.
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Strategies and financing need to be radically reassessed to achieve sustainability in a rapidly changing world.
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Qatari banks are eager to demonstrate their commitment to sustainable banking amid growing public scrutiny of the environmental cost of hosting the World Cup.
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The climate circus has packed up and left, with everyone disappointed and no one surprised. Some thoughts from a COP first-timer.
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Saving the planet requires shutting down coal plants while also ensuring the livelihood of the people who depend on them. The ADB has a plan.
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Reports published at COP27 suggest slow but steady progress by banks on interim sector targets for net zero. But political reality, particularly in the US, requires a delicate approach.
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Bank’s ESG head urges competitors and regulators to respond more quickly to emissions accounting challenge.
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New opportunities in oil and gas as supply is reoriented away from Russia highlight the question of how quickly cuts to financed emissions will match banks’ enthusiasm for growth in clean energy.
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Climate-smart innovations and regenerative agriculture are attracting tech-savvy equity investors to the farming sector. Access to affordable financing will determine how fast those companies can grow to scale and provide an exit.
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As the private sector demands more guidelines, COP27 should promote the development of a global framework on innovative finance.
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European banks have raced far ahead of their US peers on sustainability. But the continent is now facing an energy emergency, creating pressure from some corners to reverse investment declines in oil and gas. Can Europe’s banks remain frontrunners in sustainable finance in today’s fragile geopolitical environment?
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Boutique investment bank DAI Magister suggests donor funds could catalyse private equity and debt investment in climate tech, the big theme of COP27.
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Carbon credit traders want to secure the integrity of the voluntary carbon market while encouraging speculative trading that could fix its liquidity problem.
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Demand for carbon offsetting credits on the VCM has intensified as corporates look for solutions to reach net zero. But as more and more institutions look to tap this market, can the existing infrastructure cope?
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Regulators want to prevent greenwashing; corporates need to abide by the rules. What happens when science doesn’t help?
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New deal adds two-year payment deferral to existing natural-disaster clause to mitigate impact of a future pandemic.
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Fossil fuel assets were set to become obsolete in the transition to net zero. But the war in Ukraine is forcing European governments to secure alternative energy sources and driving demand for coal, oil and gas back in the wrong direction. With the global energy transition seemingly pitched against national energy security agendas, banks are trying to navigate a difficult path through the turmoil.
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The Netherlands wants biodiversity to be at the forefront of agricultural reform. But the government’s plan to buy out livestock farmers – which was behind the resignation of agriculture minister Henk Staghouwer last week – is a short-sighted solution.
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Anti-ESG boycotts are unlikely to cross the Atlantic.
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The Singaporean bank has launched sector-specific decarbonization commitments it says are industry-leading. For them to be achieved, the bank’s corporate client base is going to need to make changes, too.
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The government is prepared to take drastic measures to reduce the nitrogen produced by livestock. But as farmers resist being pushed out of a profitable sector, the dispute demonstrates the cost of turning climate agendas into a race to cut emissions as quickly as possible.
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As scrutiny of the ESG sector intensifies, how can green funds provide the kind of data that the regulators are starting to demand?
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A US climate bill filled with green credits will create business for banks and provide relief from the backlash against ESG products.
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A just transition should protect smaller firms from paying the price for the carbon emissions of larger ones.
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Wealth managers are keen to engage with clients on biodiversity, but concerns over liquidity and access pose challenges to retail and private clients.
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Companies that publicly commit to net zero by 2030 need to be held accountable for those commitments. That won’t happen until their carbon footprint becomes publicly available data.
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Banks want to capitalize on the surge in green capex borrowing as corporates rush to decarbonize. Cost inflation has increased the risks involved but not the long-term benefit of carbon reduction.
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Latest iteration of the nature-related reporting framework tackles tension between demand for clear and simple methodology applicable to business models and the complexity of the science.
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The banking industry has become frustrated by slow regulatory progress as it waits for necessary standardization of climate risk assessments and disclosure policies to meet net-zero targets.
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Lombard Odier joins Barclays and Nomura in hoping to grow partnerships and shareholdings in a market that is heavily banked but underpinned by a vast institutional bid and a belated surge towards sustainability.
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HSBC Asset Management’s head of responsible investing has had it up to here with consultants and regulators lecturing him on climate change risk.
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Asset managers and index providers are the focus of a backlash against ESG. Banks will face their own reputational roasting as demand for fossil-fuel financing rebounds.
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Credit intelligence specialist OakNorth is working with a consortium of US banks to assess physical and transition climate risk in loan portfolios. The motivation for the banks is clear: self-preservation in the face of growing climate-related disruption.
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China’s approach to ESG is a jumble of grandiose and contradictory state planning alongside often marvellously successful bottom-up plans by banks and fintechs to instil in consumers a more sustainable lifestyle.
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Where do the borders of ESG lie – now and in the future? Investors from the US to China are revisiting these questions and finding thorny and often unpalatable answers, even as they dump Russian assets for ethical reasons. The results are set to shape the financial world’s relationship with sustainability for years to come.
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Early in the Covid crisis, CACIB avoided the big equity derivatives losses its local rivals suffered. Chief executive Jacques Ripoll tells Euromoney how the bank plans to take advantage of the rise of sustainable finance, which plays to its long-standing expertise in infrastructure and energy.
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A ‘remarkable’ global dollar bond from Airport Authority Hong Kong raises the question of whether any member of the aviation sector should include a green tranche within its funding structure.
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The scrutiny of sustainable finance is expected to intensify over the year as stakeholders look for market participants to deliver on environmental promises.