August 2021

Students demand that teacher pension fund revoke fossil-fuel investments
30Aug

US. Students demand that teacher pension fund revoke fossil-fuel investments

More than 500 Bay Area high school students gathered outside the San Francisco Federal Building on 7th Street Friday before marching down Market Street to City Hall, calling on the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, the state’s pension fund for California public school teachers, to divest its investment holdings in fossil fuel companies. They pointed out that that California’s wildfires demonstrate the need to reduce emissions. “This climate strike has been going on for years, but we’re feeling the effects of climate...

August 30, 2021
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19Aug

US. Climate Change and Benchmarking Risk for Retirement Plans

Institutional Investors Generally  don´t mine coal, make cement or indiscriminately strip large forests. But the companies in which they invest might be engaged in such activities that experts say will prove incompatible with the shift to a lower-carbon world. And, they add, a retirement plan’s holdings of these at-risk investments could have negative consequences for plan participants.   Plan Exposures Climate change risks can affect plans in several ways, says Therese Feng, vice president of research for The Climate Service, a climate...

August 19, 2021
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17Aug

US. Should the Federal Government ‘Green’ Its Pension Plan?

Climate change is posing an existential threat to more than just the planet. In fact, the federal government is concerned that weather-related risks will begin eroding the retirement portfolios of its employees. Read also US. Climate Change and Benchmarking Risk for Retirement Plans Earlier this year, the U.S. Government Accountability Office recommended that the board overseeing the Thrift Savings Plan (TSP) for federal workers analyze the financial performance of companies in its portfolio, in light of risks related to climate change...

August 17, 2021
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12Aug

Climate Change 2021 The Physical Science Basis

By IPCC This Summary for Policymakers (SPM) presents key findings of the Working Group I (WGI) contribution to the IPCC’s Sixth Assessment Report (AR6)1 on the physical science basis of climate change. The report builds upon the 2013 Working Group I contribution to the IPCC’s Fifth Assessment Report (AR5) and the 2018–2019 IPCC Special Reports2 of the AR6 cycle and incorporates subsequent new evidence from climate science3 . This SPM provides a high-level summary of the understanding of the current state of...

August 12, 2021
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12Aug

Analysis: UN climate report increases urgency for green investment funds

Dire warnings about climate change are a call to action for investors who put their money into helping the environment. But the news also heightens a debate about how to make these strategies effective, financial executives said. Read also Asia vast savings can bring on an ‘age of sustainability’ A U.N climate report on Monday found that global warming is dangerously close to spiraling out of control. Even the most severe carbon emission cuts are unlikely to prevent global warming of...

August 12, 2021
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10Aug

Sustainability, not size, is vital for growth

Research into economic growth has a long and distinguished history, but the recent introduction of sustainability into the debate has given the field a necessary and overdue shake-up. In particular, a report on the economics of biodiversity, commissioned by the UK government and led by Partha Dasgupta of the University of Cambridge, represents a tectonic shift in thinking, rather than only a logical extension of previous growth models. While this may be unsettling to some, it provides a great...

August 10, 2021
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02Aug

UK. Pensions minister: Climate risk must be at the heart of pension decision making

By Guy Opperman Evidence of climate change is undeniable. If all the statistics currently making headlines aren’t enough, the considerable amount of extreme weather witnessed right across the globe, from soaring temperatures in Canada and the Pacific North West, to devastating flash flooding across Europe and China, is further proof of its impact. There are just under three months to go until the UK hosts the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties (COP26) in Glasgow, and we are accelerating...

August 2, 2021
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July 2021
29Jul

Our pensions are the most powerful tools we have to fight climate change

Richard Curtis is urging people to take control of how their pension is invested and demand it is given to eco-friendly companies by lobbying their providers. The film director and sustainability campaigner, who is the founder of Make My Money Matter, said that our pensions, which are collectively worth trillions of pounds, are the most “powerful tools we have in our arsenal” to fight climate change. Speaking to iMoney editor Sarah Davidson during a live talk on Wednesday, he said: “There...

July 29, 2021
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28Jul

Can Climate Change Impact Your Retirement?

Recent fires, floods, and extreme heat events are demonstrating that climate change is here—now—not some day in the distant future. How could that realization impact your retirement plans? Any concern you might feel about climate change could depend in part on your age. A recent survey conducted by the Society of Actuaries (SOA), titled “Financial Perspectives on Aging and Retirement Across the Generations,” takes a deeper look into the topic and provides insights into how different generations view the importance...

July 28, 2021
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16Jul

Is there really an ESG bubble?

Environmental, social and governance-focused investment is on the upswing like no other investment trend. In the first half of 2021, of 80 exchange-traded funds and mutual fund launches in the UK, 37 were ESG vehicles. Of these, 19 were equity funds, 16 mixed assets, and one each for bond and alternatives (chart 1). Bonds showed rather better last year with 12 launches, but whatever the year, equity launches dominate. This compares with 207 launches in 2020, of which 59 were ESG,...

July 16, 2021
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