ClientEarth yesterday filed a world-first lawsuit against the Board of Directors of Shell for failing to manage the material and foreseeable risks posed to the company by climate change. The lawsuit alleges Shell’s 11 directors have breached their legal duties under the UK Companies Act by failing to adopt and implement an energy transition[…]
Will 2023 see the acceleration of ‘engagement washing’? High-profile coalitions such as Nature Action 100+ have been launched in recent months, but some are concerned that engagement is becoming a ‘fig leaf’ to excuse investments in companies facing too high barriers to exit, reported Siri Christiansen on CityWire in December 2022. The latest Climate[…]
Five questions to Andrea Baranes, senior analist at Fondazione Finanza Etica, Italian member of SfC. On 12 October, SfC’s founding member Fondazione Finanza Etica presented the “Fifth Report on Ethical and Value-Based Finance in Europe” at the European Parliament in Brussels. A session was dedicated to the measurement and disclosure of GHG emissions associated[…]
Many SfC members are engaging companies on the risk of Uyghur Forced Labor in global supply chains. Isotope (and DNA) analysis could be a new issue on which to engage the textile industry. A comprehensive shareholder engagement campaign targeting companies potentially exposed (directly or indirectly) to human rights abuses in the Uyghur Region, in[…]
Five questions to Julius van Sambeck, managing director of Ethius Invest, Swiss member of SfC. Julius, why did you decide to engage Intel on crypto-mining? Within the scope of the current Crypto-Investment Boom, the most overlooked companies in the space (from a sustainability point of view) are those delivering the “shovels” and providing for[…]
SfC German member Bank für Kirche und Caritas (BKC) concludes two-year engagement dialogue successfully Namibia officially becomes the 184th state to join the UN Biological Weapons Convention, which has been in place since 1971. Bank für Kirche und Caritas, German founding member of SfC, has been in close exchange with several high-ranking Namibian State[…]
“Making finance work for the climate requires a mix of both effective engagement and exclusion”, explained Lucie Pinson, founder and executive director of Reclaim Finance in a webinar hosted as part of SfC’s winter meeting, on 2 December. Engagement can influence the business models of companies and tackle hard-to-abate yet essential economic activities (e.g. the[…]
Five questions to Edmond Schaff, portfolio manager of Sanso Investment Solutions, French member of SfC Edmond, Sanso has been engaging asset managers on ESG issues for four years now. What is the purpose of your engagement? Approximately one third of Sanso IS’s assets are invested in funds managed by third party asset management companies.[…]
Florence, 15 November 2021 A proposal to bring both nuclear power and natural gas into the EU’s green finance taxonomy is circulating in Brussels, according to media sources. The so-called “non-paper” lays out detailed technical criteria for gas to qualify as a transitional activity under the EU’s sustainable finance rules. Mauro Meggiolaro, coordinator of the European investor network SfC –[…]
On 16 September 2021, after collecting international best practices in the fight against deforestation, SfC Swiss member Ethos has published an Engagement Paper to initially engage seven multinational companies particularly exposed to deforestation risks. “We want to encourage companies to implement concrete and targeted measures to stop the destruction of forests”, says Matthias Narr, Head[…]