Fund EcoMarket
the sustainable, responsible and ethical investment information hub
the sustainable, responsible and ethical investment information hub
March 18th, 2022
A big thank you to our friends at Investment Life and Pensions Moneyfacts for publishing – and putting on the front cover – my latest piece on sustainable investment. You can download a pdf of the text here: 16-17 Purpose, Positioning and Priorities The text – as submitted – is below. Sent to Investment […]
December 10th, 2021
As you are reading this post you may well know that I have spent nearly 30 years working in sustainable, responsible and ethical investment because I believe it can – and will – help deliver a better future. I also believe it makes sound financial sense because there is no real alternative to shifting to […]
July 19th, 2021
SRI Services welcomes new FCA ESG and Sustainable Investment Principles
July 12th, 2021
[Please see my more recent ‘Principles’ blog as the FCA Sustainable Investment Principles are now live.] As you will know, the focus on ‘ESG’ (environmental, social and governance) has ramped up dramatically recently right through the investment value chain. News is now emerging almost daily from all quarters – from the public facing NGOs (notably […]
May 11th, 2021
UKSIF Policy Vision On 28 April 2021 UKSIF launched its new ‘policy vision’ at an event convened to celebrate the organisation’s 30th anniversary. The document makes great reading if you wish to explore how sustianable finance may evolve over the coming years. You can download the new UKSIF Policy Vision here. The main elements of […]
March 25th, 2021
During UKSIF’s excellent ‘Ownership Day’ event today I was delighted to hear from their keynote speaker Mark Manning of the FCA, that the Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has formally written to Nikhil Rathi, Chief Executive of the FCA, with notification that the government now requires climate change to form part of the regulator’s […]
July 22nd, 2020
It is lovely to have contributed once again to ‘Investment Life and Pensions Moneyfacts’ editor Richard Eagling’s annual SRI feature – entitled ‘Green Power’ . In addition to lots of great commentary the market performance statistics are fantastic, with their analysis showing ‘All ethical funds’ performance outstripping ‘All non ethical funds’ over 1, 3, 5, […]
June 19th, 2020
Introduction The EU has a raft of consultations ongoing aimed at driving investment to be more focused on sustainability. I am yet to give these the time they deserve, but to help you keep up to date here are some thoughts and links you may like to digest… Although their work on sustainable finance has […]
March 29th, 2020
With the ethical and social aspects of coronavirus being plain to see and markets wobbling horribly we have started to pull together some early comments published by the sustainable, responsible and ethical investment fund mangers that partner with Fund EcoMarket. Su and I will be writing out to all of our partner fund managers asking […]
March 23rd, 2020
Sustainable Finance Taxonomy report ‘Financing a Sustainable European Economy’ Technical Report published 9 March 2020 On 9 March 2020 the EU TEG (Technical Expert Group) on sustainable finance produced their final report which sets out a ‘taxonomy’ of sustainable business activities. This significant development will help investors to recognise those business activities that should be […]
January 17th, 2020
BlackRock founder and CEO Larry Fink has been making headlines this week with the announcement on Tuesday (14/1/20) that BlackRock are making major changes to their business, putting sustainability – and in particular climate change – at the heart of their business operations. This is a welcome and important development. Some commentators have pointed out […]
November 13th, 2019
Recent media coverage, generated in part in response to a recent report by SCM*, indicates that greenwash fears are growing apace. This is of course a huge shame as when we talk about funds that focus on environmental, social and ethical issues we would all much rather be talking about their benefits relative to their […]
October 18th, 2019
FCA statement on climate change and green finance
April 18th, 2019
A growing number of funds are now marketed as being ‘sustainability themed’ or having sustainability related themes (often in addition to ethical, ESG or other SRI strategies). These funds employ many different strategies, methods and ‘lines of thought’. For most, sustainability is demonstrably central to their investment proposition (via various policies, themes and research criteria). […]
April 5th, 2019
The Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (the international network of SIFs, that includes friends at UKSIF and Eurosif) has this week published its biennial global market report covering the period 2016-18 The report shows substantial growth in sustainable and responsible investment assets under management across all areas – with the exception of the EU as a […]
February 4th, 2019
The Investment Association announced last week that it is to consult members on Sustainability and Responsible Investment. Their launch release is copied below. The deadline for this consultation is 1 March and although we have already spoken with the IA on this SRI Services plans to respond also. You can download the IA Consultation document here. […]
February 4th, 2019
SRI Services submitted a response to the FCA’s highly welcome consultation on Climate Change and Green Finance (DP18/8) last week. You can read our submission here. Alternatively – here are our 12 key points that we would like the regulator to formally recognise and act on. The role of investors is central to our ability […]
January 20th, 2019
The timing may not be ideal, but it is none the less welcome that the EU (ESMA) is consulting on bringing SRI fact finding into the financial advice process following their consultation last year. You can download their paper on this here. Deadline 19 February 2019.
January 16th, 2019
As mentioned in my blog in October last year the FCA is consulting on climate change and green finance. SRI Services plans to respond to this important paper – both by welcoming it and by responding to those questions that fall within our area of expertise. DP18/8: Climate change and green finance DEADLINE – 31 JANUARY […]
November 8th, 2018
I am delighted to share the videos from our ‘Sustainability and Suitability’ SRI event for those who were unable to attend on the day. Keynote speaker Lord Deben’s climate change speech was a particular highlight.
September 30th, 2018
The Bank of England has taken a leadership position on climate change for a number of years. Governor Mark Carney’s ‘Tragedy of the horizons’ speech in 2015 set the scene for how the Bank viewed the issue of climate risk. Their subsequent work on the FSB TCFD framework has put climate change on the agenda for […]
July 20th, 2018
I am running rather late with blogs at the moment as there is so much happening – but felt it important to flag the news that the FCA is looking into the area of ESG/SRI in Q1 2019 – as part of their response to the Law Commission’s review of Pensions and Social Investment. None […]
June 8th, 2018
EU proposals to include ESG as part of investment and advice processes. 20 June 2018 Update: Our published response can be found here. ===== On 24 May 2018 the EU published draft recommendations proposing the inclusion of ESG within the obligatory advice process as part of their ongoing work supporting the growth of Sustainable Finance. Their draft […]
May 25th, 2018
Yesterday was a big day for those of us who care about how investment and financial services impact the world we live in. The following is a direct ‘cut and paste’ version of a press released issued by the European Commission, complete with links. The potential implications of this are very significant for all in […]
April 10th, 2018
The Green Finance Taskforce published a highly significant (100 page) report on 28 March 2018. The report, which aims to help accelerate ‘green finance’ in the UK , can be downloaded here. The government landing page introduces the report as follows: “In September 2017, the government asked leading finance expert and former Mayor of London Sir Roger Gifford to chair […]
March 15th, 2018
On 8 March 2018 the EU published its response to the Sustainable Finance HLEG (High Level Expert Group) report issued in January. Go to the new EU Sustainable Finance information here. The report is accompanied by an action plan and an event which will be live streamed on 22 March. I am yet to digest the report, however […]
London Climate Week event on 28 & 29 June I happily agreed to become involved with a major London Climate Week event run by Reset Connect some time ago. The event is now only two weeks away. I did so mostly because I am always keen to help and encourage intermediaries to learn about climate issues […]
Earlier this week I set out my initial response to HSBC’s head of Responsible Investment – Stuart Kirk’s – extraordinary presentation on climate risk (see blog linked below). In the interest of understanding different points of view – here is a collection of articles and opinions about his speech that we believe are relevant to […]
…and has now been rightly suspended by HSBC. There is so much to say on this story, but let me start by saying I have no desire to ‘bash’ HSBC. Big banks are imperfect and have, in my view, propped up the fossil fuel industry for far too long – but that is not what […]