7th December 2021

SRI Services news round up

I will start with a few words on COP26 and other areas - but the main purpose of this email is to bring together recent regulatory activity to help you track sustainable investment related events. 

To keep the preamble brief - my lasting impressions of COP is that although we are still a million miles away from solving the problems we must tackle there is a mass of hugely diverse and very serious work underway... so I am edging towards feeling more optimistic these days!

I have just written a piece for Investment Life and Pension Moneyfacts which I've called ‘Normalising Net Zero’.  It isn't published so I won't say too much, but it focuses on what I think is probably the biggest recent shift - which is that it is now (at long last) becoming 'normal' to bring climate change into business decisions.

I am well aware that some people don't and probably won't ever care - but they  seem to be firmly in the minority now - so our main task has largely shifted from 'why?' to 'how?'.

So although COP26 was no panacea, ‘keeping 1.5 alive’ was undisputed - and there was even a surprise announcement that China and the US will cooperate to address climate change - which is not to be sniffed at. 

Rather refreshingly - the breadth of the challenges we face also came through clearly this time.  People seemed to grasp that climate change, illegal deforestation, intergenerational concerns, coal, transport, food etc are in fact interconnected.  (Hoorah!) 

And on the subject of COP – I must thank Lombard Odier (who I am delighted to welcome as a new Fund EcoMarket fund manager partner) and Make My Money Matter - who although unconnected between them me in to going to Glasgow for a few days, which I will always be grateful for.

Their various events were exceptional -  and probably as different from one another as any events could be.

Lombard Odier's were largely science based, focused on emerging areas like investing in nature (and made all the more special by HRH popping by), whereas MMMM (ably supported by WWF, Aviva, Scottish Widows and B Corp) served as a reminder that end investors absolutely should feel 'invested' in their pensions - in more ways than one.  A big congrats to both for a successful COP!

In other news (I explain further below) - I am delighted to have been appointed to the FCA's Disclosure and Labels Advisory Group - which met for the first time last week.

And being awarded Best ESG Support Service Provider by Investment Week Award was a wonderful surprise - a lovely 'pick me up' towards the end of a quite remarkable (if exhausting) year!

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