Science-based risk analytics firm Dunya Analytics has unveiled a platform designed to help companies track biodiversity-related risks. It provides a roster of nature and biodiversity analytics – including data on the lands of Indigenous Peoples and local communities – synthesising datasets into an automated system that delivers clear and actionable insights. “Companies often ask us how to get started with the daunting effort of measuring nature risk,” said Dunya Analytics CEO and Founder Megan Pillsbury. “Our platform provides that starting point, guiding organisations through complex requirements while revealing opportunities for sustainable growth.” The platform is aligned with major global frameworks, including the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive, and the Science Based Targets Network. “The combination of comprehensive analytics and user-friendly design helps us translate complex data into actionable strategies,” said Rachel Greengas, Global Sustainability Director at chemical manufacturing company FMC Corporation. “This tool is invaluable as we work to understand our impacts and dependencies on nature, including biodiversity, and identify risks and opportunities across our global operations.”
Sustainable Investor
News in Brief
Worldwide investment in the low-carbon energy transition rose 11% to hit a record US$2.1 trillion in 2024, according to the annual Energy Transition Investment Trends report from BloombergNEF (BNEF). The growth was primarily driven by electrified transport, renewable energy, and power grids, which all reached new highs last year, as did energy storage investment. Investment in electrified transport, which includes electric vehicles and public charging infrastructure, reached US$757 billion in 2024, while backing for renewable energy hit US$728 billion and power grids pulled in US$390 billion. Investment in emerging technologies, such as electrified heat, hydrogen, carbon capture and storage, and nuclear, only reached US$155 billion, a 23% year-on-year drop. China’s total support for energy transition increased 20%, to US$818 billion. This was greater than the combined investment of the US, EU and UK. India and Canada also added to overall global growth, increasing their investments by 13% and 19% respectively. Conversely, investment stagnated in the US at US$338 billion, while both EU and UK investments fell. “Our report shows just how much growth we’ve seen in the energy transition over the past few years, despite political uncertainty and high interest rates,” said Albert Cheung, Deputy CEO of BNEF. “There is still much more that needs to be done, especially in emerging areas like industrial decarbonisation, hydrogen and carbon capture, in order to reach global net-zero goals. True partnership between the private and public sectors is the only solution to unlock the potential of these technologies.”
Funds classified as Article 8 under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) registered the highest inflows of 2024 in the final quarter of the year, with a €52 billion (US$54 billion) surge of new investments, according to Morningstar Sustainalytics. This increase was entirely attributable to fixed-income funds, said Hortense Bioy, Head of Sustainable Investing at Morningstar Sustainalytics. On the other hand, Article 9 funds continued to experience outflows for the fifth consecutive quarter, meaning that taken together the two categories saw net redemptions over the full year. “In 2024’s bull market, investors simply preferred conventional equity strategies,” said Bioy. Looking ahead, Morningstar Sustainalytics expects to see a complete transformation of the EU ESG fund landscape in the coming months as the deadline for the European Securities and Markets Authority fund naming rules approaches. “Overall, we estimate that between 30% and 50% of ESG funds, representing between 1,200 and 2,200 funds, could see name changes, with term removals, additions, and potential mergers anticipated for smaller and underperforming funds. Investors will need to monitor any changes to their funds’ name and investment objective to understand the potential impact on their portfolios’ risk-return and sustainability profiles,” said Bioy.
The United Nation’s Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) has launched a human rights toolkit for financial institutions (FIs) to support the alignment of business practices with the UN’s Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs). The toolkit is organised according to three components of the corporate responsibility to respect human rights as described in the UNGPs: policy commitments, human rights due diligence, and access to remedy. Stakeholder engagement, which UNEP FI described as a “cross-cutting theme that is relevant to all aspects of the tool”, is addressed in an overarching section. The toolkit provides recommendations in relation to both FI “lending and investment activities”, as well as “own operations and consumer banking activities”. The guidance on key human rights due diligence topics are supplemented by sector-specific analyses of risks, opportunities, and actions, including for the Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Infrastructure, Minerals and Metals Extraction, and Renewables sectors. While UNEP FI stated that the tool’s target audience is FIs, particularly corporate lenders and project financiers, the tool aims is intended to be useful for other relevant stakeholders, including investors, civil society, states, and national human rights institutions. The toolkit was financed and developed with the support of the European Investment Bank.
The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative (NZAM) “has very little choice” other than to temporarily suspend its activities following mounting pressure in the US and the departure of the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock. This is according to a statement published by CCLA Investment Management, a founding signatory of the net zero group. “CCLA was, and remains, proud to be a founder signatory of NZAM,” the statement said. “We are disappointed with the decision by NZAM to suspend its activities, but after meeting with the NZAM secretariat team, we understand that they had very little other choice.” The asset manager reiterated its commitment to addressing the societal and financial risks associated with climate change and confirmed it would be “participating fully” in the NZAM consultation, outlining some initial recommendations. “First, we believe the sector needs to be resolute that climate risk is long-term financial risk,” CCLA said. “We cannot cave to pressure to be quiet, instead we should review options together.” Although this may mean asset managers most impacted by the anti-ESG movement choose not to participate in the alliance any longer, CCLA said this “should not stop those that can”. In addition, it recommended ensuring that the alliance has a real-world focus, with increased flexibility in how asset managers can contribute to global decarbonisation. “Different firms will be able to push for change in different ways, depending upon their asset classes, positioning, and processes,” the statement said. Thirdly, CCLA acknowledged that the 1.5°C goal “seems further and further from the path that we are on”. As such, it is highly likely that a future NZAM will need to carefully consider different decarbonisation scenarios. “A new NZAM will have to encourage asset managers to work much more closely with asset owners,” CCLA added.
UK-based pensions fund consultancy Pensions for Purpose has welcomed a new government proposal to give more flexibility to how UK defined benefit pension schemes are managed. At the moment, only pension schemes that passed a resolution before 2016 may access their fund surplus, which means that a lot of money cannot be invested. Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Chancellor Rachel Reeves outlined plans to lift this restriction at a roundtable of business executives. “Allowing surplus extraction could encourage trustees to take a longer-term view, moving beyond a narrow focus on buyout timelines,” said Laasya Shekaran, Director, Pensions for Purpose. “This shift could drive greater appetite for impact and more sustainable investing, which may come with higher risk/return profiles and illiquidity but delivers systemic sustainability benefits over the long term.” Government data suggests that 75% of UK defined benefit pension schemes, worth £160 billion, are in surplus at the moment.
Technology provider RepRisk has announced that its AI-powered business conduct and ESG risk data is now available on Bloomberg, offering insights on companies’ business conduct risks and real performance. RepRisk’s data is powered by industry-leading AI models trained for accuracy on over two decades of human analyst-labelled data, with its dataset covering more than 100 risk factors across over 280,000 companies globally. “With RepRisk’s data integrated into Bloomberg, 350,000 influential financial professionals will have access to the high-quality data needed to make better informed decisions – at speed, with confidence and for peace of mind,” said Philipp Aeby, CEO at RepRisk. RepRisk hopes that incorporating its data in the Bloomberg platform will help drive value for investors. “The integration of RepRisk’s data into Bloomberg’s offering will broaden the universe of companies we provide ESG risk factors for and enable our customers to make better-informed decisions,” said Patricia Torres, Global Head of Sustainable Finance Solutions at Bloomberg. RepRisk data has been available to mutual clients for use in Bloomberg’s DL+ ESG Manager solution since last March. This solution aggregates, organises and links licensed Bloomberg data and multi-vendor data content into a single unified data model.
New York State Senator Brad Hoylman-Sigal has introduced Senate Bill S3456 which, if passed, will impose climate-related disclosure requirements on companies operating in the state. The bill will require businesses with over US$1 billion in revenues to annually disclose their Scopes 1, 2, and 3 emissions and establish a climate accountability and emissions disclosure fund. The legislation also places particular emphasis on flood risk within New York. Senator Hoylman-Sigal is following in the footsteps of California, whose own rules are currently expected to take effect from next year (although this is subject to legal pushback fuelled by the anti-ESG movement). Other states, such as Illinois, are separately considering introducing climate-related financial disclosure rules for companies.
The International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) and the International Ethics Standards Board for Accountants (IESBA) have launched new standards and guidelines to strengthen trust and transparency in sustainability reporting. Taken together, these revised standards provide a unified global approach to addressing growing market demand and calls from regulators and other stakeholders for trustworthy sustainability information to support stakeholder decisions. The standards represent “an important evolution in global sustainability reporting and assurance,” said Tom Seidenstein, Chair of the IAASB. He added that they “establish the necessary technical and ethical pillars to ensure that qualified practitioners could consistently perform high-quality assurance engagements on sustainability information.” Gabriela Figueiredo Dias, Chair of the IESBA, said: “Ethics is the foundation of trust. With these standards, we are equipping preparers and practitioners with the tools needed to uphold integrity and foster transparency in sustainability reporting. Together, the IAASB and IESBA are setting a global standard for accountability and professionalism.” The IAASB develops auditing, assurance, related services, and quality management standards and guidance in the public interest that support consistent performance of quality engagements. The IESBA is an independent global standard setting board.
Impact investor WHEB Asset Management has been acquired by investment manager Foresight Capital Management (FCM) in a deal expected to add almost £800 million (US$994.2 million) to the group’s assets under management. FCM provides institutional and retail investors with a range of listed and private investment solutions to reduce global carbon emissions and improve social infrastructure for businesses and communities while driving strong long-term financial returns. “WHEB has built an outstanding business with a strong mission and powerful brand that stands for authentic impact investing,” said Nick Scullion, Head of FCM. “Bringing WHEB’s products, people and culture onto the FCM platform positions our business as a leader in impact investing in public markets in the UK and in other key geographies.” All three of WHEB’s partners will become part of Foresight and will remain in London, managing their existing investment strategies as part of the Foresight group. “Over the past decade WHEB has built a highly successful, award-winning franchise around a core global equity impact strategy,” said George Latham, Managing Partner at WHEB. “As part of FCM and the wider Foresight group, we will be able to offer clients a broader suite of impact products across different asset classes with the backing of an institution with a strong balance-sheet and established distribution and risk management processes.”
