A selection of the major stories impacting ESG investors, in five easy pieces.
Whole-economy transformation was high on the agenda at London Climate Action Week and beyond.
Silent crisis – Among the more significant announcements made at London Climate Action Week (LCAW) was the unveiling of its draft ‘Global Roadmap for a Nature-positive Economy’ by the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF). Avoiding the nature crisis requires the same whole-economy transformation needed to avert the climate crisis, the conservation organisation contends – and similar tools too, such as sector-specific pathways that plot the path to a sustainable future for governments, companies and investors. Due to be finalised and presented at the biodiversity COP16 in Colombia, the framework focuses on five pillars needed to underpin national plans for the nature-positive transition. While companies and investors are beginning to factor nature-related risks, impacts and opportunities into their decisions – as reflected in updates this week from the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures and the UN Principles for Responsible Investment’s (PRI) Spring engagement initiative – their actions are limited by prevailing policies. To transform economies and redirect capital to nature-positive projects, resource-strapped governments need help, especially in the Global South. Speaking at the launch, Mahmoud Mohieldin, UN Special Envoy on Financing the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development and UN Climate Change High-Level Champion at COP27, said many are already struggling with the “silent crisis” of unsustainable debt levels. Governments that are already slashing health and education budgets rather than entering restructuring negotiations are not best-placed to realign their finance flows with the Global Biodiversity Framework. For this reason, the WWF’s draft roadmap seeks to provide that technical policy support, but it also expects change among those with the most power to influence, calling for multilateral development banks to “mainstream” nature into their decisions – especially around debt.
Plan to succeed – Transition pathways was a key theme throughout LCAW, in recognition of the work still needed to guide businesses and economies toward credible decarbonisation. The International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) confirmed it was assuming oversight of the transition plan disclosure resources developed by the UK’s Transition Plan Taskforce, taking the initiative a step closer to its original remit of establishing a ‘gold standard’ framework to be used across jurisdictions. For good measure, the ISSB also announced closer collaboration with other sustainability standards and reporting bodies, partly to build on its recent commitment to
