“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[…]
Five questions to Tommy Piemonte, head of sustainability research at Bank für Kirche und Caritas (BKC), founding member of SfC Tommy, in 2020, for the first time your bank has decided to engage with a State, Namibia. Why? Namibia is one of the 14 UN member states that have not yet joined or ratified[…]
SfC members are satisfied with companies’ responses. But structural problems will have to be addressed soon. The energy transition cannot happen without rare metals and rare earths. However, they are often extracted in countries at high risk of environmental and human rights violations, such as China or the Democratic Republic of Congo, as evidenced[…]
In May 2020, a group of European institutional investors and NGOs, led by SfC – Shareholders for Change’s founding members Bank für Kirche und Caritas (BKC) and Fondazione Finanza Etica, sent a letter to the Norwegian pension fund (GPFG or Government Pension Fund Global). They called on the Fund to reconsider its investment in the German defence group Rheinmetall, involved[…]
Five questions to Colin Baines, Friends Provident Foundation Colin, what does “Just Transition” mean? Our programme of engagement with the energy utilities sector is calling for formal Just Transition strategies to accompany net zero targets and transition plans. A ‘Just Transition’ ensures that social issues are taken into account in moving to a low[…]
We asked this question to the SfC members who have been involved in the project during the AGM Season 2021. Mauro Meggiolaro, Fondazione Finanza Etica “We evaluated the decarbonisation plans of Eni, Shell and Total. All three are still vague and concentrate most decarbonisation efforts after 2030. How can the majority of shareholders be[…]
Between April and May 2021, SfC’s members Ethos Foundation, Meeschaert Asset Management and Fondazione Finanza Etica engaged a total of six companies on their respective decarbonisation plans as part of the ‘Say on Climate’ initiative. The basic idea of the ‘Say on Climate’ concept is for companies to put their climate transition plans to an advisory shareholder vote. A climate[…]