Tariq Fancy - formerly of BlackRock - writes an essay | Desiree Fixler blows the whistle at DWS, and the SEC investigates | Aswath Damodaran suggests ESG creates more harm than good | Morningstar's paper on the forward-looking potential value of ESG | Regulations continues to gain momentum

...in ESG ratings, anyway | Impact Delta co-authors a white paper with Dream on the launch of its impact funds | HBS's report on quality over quantity of ESG data: the more data is provided, the more ESG scores tend to diverge | SFDR's first phase trims the size of assets under management claiming to be sustainable | Green bond issuance will top $1tn in 2021

This paper is the product of a collaboration between Dream and Impact Delta. Dream is one of Canada’s leading real estate companies, whose purpose is to deliver strong returns while delivering positive impact in the communities where it works. We advised Dream on the launch of its impact investing strategy, which is outlined here.

FTSE Russel threatens to expel 208 companies from its FTSE4Good index this week | DEI efforts are pushing the middle market to change | Summa's annual impact report: one of the first managers to highlight principal adverse impact indicators | Female and minority board member are on multiple Fortune 500 boards 35% more than white men

...and another record foe ESG flows | Exxon holds its annual shareholders's meeting | EQT's sustainability-linked bond: more expensive debt if ESG targets are not hit | PWC ESG Value Creation Survey: 66% of respondents cite value creation as one of the top 3 drivers of responsible investing | Morningstar: Q1 2021's net inflows into ESG funds were 5x Q1 2019

(Almost) everyone wants more disclosure | The EU enacts the first phase of its SFDR | The Maple 8 announcement: seeking better corporate disclosure of sustainability data | Why do some green bonds trade at a premium to other green bonds? | Sea level rose by 6.1mm in 2019, and by 1.4mm per year for most of the 20th century

...this is how much the G30 Working Group on Climate Change and Finance things global GDP will fall by in 2100, if the transition away from fossil fuels isn't faster | Impact Delta's new white paper: Getting Paid for New Behavior | Greenland's ice sheet lost 233bn tons of ice in July 2019, vs 255bn per year 2003-2016

Growing numbers of investors believe they must understand the full financial, environmental and social impact of their decisions. What tools exist to help them? This paper, published in October 2020 and revised a year later, explores externalities in investment decision-making. While externalities are hard to measure, more progress on this question has been made than many mainstream investors realize.

How hot will Earth get, if atmospherice CO2 doubles? 2.6-3.9 degrees C | Rethinking ESG in Private Equity: Impact Delta's new white paper | An Asset Owner's Guide to ESG | A trillion tons of carbon: how much we've added to the atmosphere since the industrial revolution

Asset owners’ decisions affect people over the world, so they want to know if investment managers’ ESG efforts are serious. This post explores eight things asset owners can do to evaluate the sustainability performance their managers. We divide the checklist into two parts: things to do now, and things to form a view on over time.

In 2020 we published a white paper in which we set to explore how PE firms could change their mindset about ESG for the coming decade. These are the main ideas, and the PDF is available for download at the button below. The recent change in attitudes to environmental questions has been swift, and continues to gather force.

In 2020, renewables will account for a bigger share of U.S. electricity generation than coal, thanks to the coronavirus crisis, and coal’s lack of competitiveness vs. solar and wind. As more coal plants remain idle or are shut down, U.S. power has dipped below 400g of CO2 per kWh for the first time.