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Franklin Templeton has expanded its global sustainability strategy team with the hire of Christine Shaw as senior advisor. Shaw joins Franklin Templeton after more than 20 years at the State of Connecticut’s Office of the Treasurer, where she served in various roles with oversight of $65bn in assets. In her most recent role, she directed … Read more

Mirova, AXA IM and Robeco are among 13 financial institutions coming together to launch a global database of avoided emissions. Avoided emissions, sometimes called ‘Scope 4’, are emission reductions that occur outside a product’s life cycle or value chain, but as a result of the use of that product, for example, fuel-saving tires. Unlike induced … Read more

Nobody ever said putting in place sustainability disclosure rules for funds was going to be easy, and it has been anything but.  The European Commission’s responses in April to a small number of questions posed last year by the European Supervisory Authorities (ESAs) on the SFDR showed that the industry’s reaction to an earlier “clarification” … Read more

Wealth manager Cazenove Capital has written to 93 asset managers on its approved fund list to set out its view on voting best practice at annual general meetings (AGMs). Together, the asset managers represent more than £30trn of assets under management. In the letter, Cazenove put forward six recommendations for voting best practice, which it … Read more

AXA Investment Managers has named Marie Luchet as head of ESG and sustainability at AXA IM Prime, the firm’s private markets fund-of-funds business. Luchet will be responsible for overseeing AXA IM Prime’s sustainability strategy, including the advancement of ESG integration in investment decision making, fund and asset-manager selection, and reporting and product design. Prior to … Read more

Schroders is providing clients the opportunity to offset carbon emissions from their underlying fund holdings by launching carbon offset share classes. These share classes will be available as part of the Schroder International Selection Fund Global Climate Leaders, which invests in companies that evidence ‘climate change leadership’. The fund is managed by Simon Webber and … Read more

More than 95% of funds with the word ‘sustainable’ or similar would require renaming or restructuring in order to meet the sustainability disclosure and label requirements of US, UK and EU regulation, a study by Clarity AI has found. The data platform looked at the fund requirements in each region, finding “limited alignment” between them, … Read more

An influential think tank has slammed the G7 energy and environment ministers for not living up to expectations regarding the phase-out of natural gas. The Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis said in a statement that while it welcomed some of the pledges made by the energy and environment ministers in last month’s communique … Read more

The investment industry is still getting to grips with an accurate definition of impact investing, said Artemis’s Sacha El Khoury in this Green Dream video interview. For her team, she explained, there is a dual mandate of delivering positive environmental and social outcomes alongside positive financial returns. She also discussed the approach for the Artemis Positive … Read more

FTSE Russell has launched a series of ESG-risk adjusted indexes as part of the continued expansion of its multi-asset ESG and climate index product range. The FTSE UK ESG Risk-Adjusted Index Series applies product and conduct exclusions and significantly reduces the carbon emissions and reserves exposure of the index, compared with the benchmark. It also … Read more