Dear SRI reader,
Transparency and good ESG reporting practice seem to have become a mantra for all stakeholders involved in investment decisions today. Input is coming from EU regulators, international governing bodies and pension funds. This week, the London Stock Exchange Group had a go at defining recommendations for good practice in ESG reporting and launched a guide, through its Global Sustainable Investment Center. Its goal is to bring coherence in reporting for investors. This is hardly a new issue for stock exchanges. In fact, the set up of the Sustainable Stock Exchange (SSE) Initiative back in 2009 aimed to create a learning platform for stock exchanges, investors, regulators, and companies to adopt best practices in promoting corporate sustainability while encouraging sustainable investing.
Week after week, we see how positive pressure keeps coming from all sides and yet, according to a recent report by Boston Common Asset Management published today, many banks are falling behind in assessing climate risk while only a minority are integrating the results of these environmental stress tests into their business decisions. Although this news is far from encouraging, according to the same report things are improving, as 82% of surveyed banks implement substantive policy changes related to climate-risk since 2015 and the same percentage of banks have adopted explicit oversight of climate risk at board level.
To quote Mindy Lubber, President of Ceres, 'The standard of best practices is changing and the Bloomberg task force is pushing for that change quite aggressively'.
Finally, if you are planning to send through your feedback to the TCFD consultation, don't forget the deadline is this Sunday 12th of February.
Happy reading,
Flavia Micilotta
- Eurosif's Executive Director

|
|