All Things Sustainable

A sobering new report from the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change tells corporations and governments in no uncertain terms: Act with urgency to lower emissions and adapt to the impacts of climate change at a more rapid pace and bigger scale.

In this episode of ESG Insider, we look at the implications of the IPCC report for investors and companies, and we talk to two scientists who helped write the nearly 4,000-page document to better understand its key findings.

Claudia Tebaldi, a scientist with the Joint Global Change Research Institute at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory and one of the report's authors, says incremental changes can make a big difference — for better or for worse.

"Every little bit matters," says Claudia. "This is in the bad sense that every little bit of warming is making the situation worse, but also that every little thing that we can make to slow down and stop [global warming] is going to matter."

We also talk to Kirsten Spalding, senior director for the investor network at Ceres, on how the lPCC's latest findings will shape future investor engagement with companies on climate change.

The report shows that "the need for action is even on a shorter timeline than we knew before," Kirsten says.

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Several countries will soon make it mandatory for large companies and asset managers to calculate and publicly report their climate-related risks. It's a complex accounting challenge and many businesses aren't fully prepared.

The governments of the U.K., New Zealand, Hong Kong and Switzerland, as well as the G7 group of nations, are among those backing mandatory reporting under the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosures, or TCFD, framework. The push towards compulsory TCFD reporting will put pressure on banks, businesses and asset managers that have yet to embrace such disclosure.

A big reason why many companies struggle with TCFD implementation is because it's hard to collect, collate and analyze detailed emissions-related data in all areas of their operations. Companies also need to train their employees on technical aspects of reporting under the framework. Above all, TCFD implementation must be roundly embraced and instilled — all the way from the C-suite to product and client-teams — and that takes time.

In this episode, we speak to Thora Frost, senior manager of green finance at the Carbon Trust, a London-based consulting firm that works on climate change and sustainability issues. And we interview Matthew Townsend, partner at U.K. law firm Allen & Overy.

"You have a blizzard of regulation and policy coming down the line, certainly over the next five years, and I don't see it letting up in many jurisdictions," Townsend says.

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If you've been following sustainability headlines over the past few years, chances are you've heard about the EU's green taxonomy — essentially, a dictionary that defines how sustainable a business or sector is. It assesses more than 100 economic activities and is designed to steer companies as they adapt their business strategies to climate change, as well as help investment funds judge sectors based on their environmental performance. Investors will also have to disclose what percentage of their investments are in line with the taxonomy.

The new regulation is expected to radically change how investors and companies report on their environmental performance. It will be enforced from 2022, which does not leave investors a lot of time to get up to speed. And the taxonomy is not quite finalized, with further regulation expected in 2023 — creating some big challenges for investors trying to navigate the changing sustainability landscape.

To talk us through what investors can expect from the taxonomy, we spoke to Helena Viñes Fiestas, commissioner at Spain's Financial Markets Authority. She's also rapporteur of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance, a body of experts from industry, finance and civil society who advise the EU's executive arm on the future of sustainable finance policy in Europe.

"I like to compare it a little bit with food products," Helena says of the taxonomy. "If you market your product as low fat, it's only fair to ask how much fat it has and whether or not it's too much. This is exactly the same, where the taxonomy becomes the recommended daily intake."

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Wall Street's top regulator, the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, is in the early stages of creating a number of new ESG-related disclosure rules, including on the issue of human capital management.

Human capital management refers to the way that companies manage their workforce. It includes things like a company's approach to hiring, recruitment, pay and benefits, and the working conditions a company provides. Right now, public corporate disclosures on these topics are voluntary in the U.S. But many investors say that leads to insufficient and inconsistent data.

"I think it's unfathomable that, in this day and age, the only metric that companies are currently required to disclose is the number of people that they employ — especially when we talk to every company and they tell us that their human capital is their most important asset," says Aeisha Mastagni, a portfolio manager in the sustainable investment and strategies group at the California State Teachers' Retirement System, one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S. "And yet we as investors have no way to measure that, benchmark that, compare it to other companies in our portfolio."

In this episode, we explore the changing state of human capital data disclosure in the U.S., why some investors want disclosures to become mandatory, and what to expect from the SEC.

We also talk to securities and governance lawyers at the Philadelphia-based law firm Dechert and with Bryan McGannon, director of policy and programs at US SIF: the forum for responsible and sustainable investment.

In mid-July 2021, the heaviest rainfall in a century triggered intense flash floods and inundated several towns in Germany, the Netherlands and Belgium, causing at least 188 deaths. The floods in Europe are a reminder that although emerging markets are likely to be hit hardest by a temperature rise, richer countries in the northern hemisphere are far from immune from the effects of severe weather. In this episode, we talk with experts to understand the biggest climate risks facing Europe's biggest economies, analyzing physical risk data from S&P Global Trucost. Guests on the episode include Irene Lauro, an economist with asset manager Schroders; and Swenja Surminski who leads adaptation research at the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment at the London School of Economics. And we talk to Berenberg Bank analyst Michael Huttner about how the floods could impact insurance companies.

The EU is working to reform its Non-Financial Reporting Directive, regulation introduced in 2014 requiring large companies to report on environmental and social issues, such as the impact of climate change on their business and the diversity of its board. The proposed new rules, called the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), would expand the reporting requirements and drastically increase the number of companies disclosing this information. CSRD would also make auditing of companies' sustainability reports obligatory. Corporations, regulators and investors increasingly recognize that environmental, social and governance risks need to be accounted for alongside financial risks when valuing a company. Investors are seeking consistent data and standards to guide them in their investment decisions around ESG factors. In this episode, we speak to Saskia Slomp, CEO of European Financial Reporting Advisory Group, or EFRAG, which advises the EU on the use of accounting standards within the bloc and which was asked by the European Commission, the EU's executive arm, to develop proposals for the new directive. "The development of mandatory common sustainability reporting standards is necessary to progress to a situation in which sustainability information has a status comparable to that of financial information," she tells us. "So many companies receive additional information requests for sustainability information from stakeholders." Photo credit: Getty Images Related past podcast episodes: Banks' big green EU taxonomy challenge https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/banks-big-green-eu-taxonomy-challenge/id1475521006?i=1000511776202 EU revolutionizes sustainability regulation with SFDR https://podcasts.apple.com/us/podcast/eu-revolutionizes-sustainability-regulation-with-sfdr/id1475521006?i=1000514008934

The EU has proposed a European Green Bond Standard as part of its strategy to drive investment into sustainable finance and achieve net zero carbon emissions by 2050. The new rules will also aim to protect investors from greenwashing, which is when an investment is made to sound greener than it is. Although they represent a tiny fraction of the overall debt market, green bonds — debt that finances environmentally friendly projects such as wind farms or solar power — have grown rapidly over the last eight years, from virtually nothing in 2012 to nearly $300 billion in 2020. The EU is counting on further growth in the market to meet the targets in its European Green Deal, designed to mobilize at least €1 trillion of sustainable investment over the next 10 years. The rules will be tougher than other existing green bond guidelines because issuers will have to prove their green bonds are financing projects in line with the EU's "green taxonomy," a dictionary of sustainable activities. In this episode, we speak to Climate Bonds Initiative CEO Sean Kidney, who was part of an advisory group that helped shape the new rules. Regulation has "been right from the beginning, a feature of the development of the market. Issuers have followed the regulations, and it's grown to be a very large successful market," he tells us. Listen to our episode on the EU's green taxonomy: https://open.spotify.com/episode/5b3qx805nauyVGvcJo9Wsr Photo credit: Getty Images

The world's biodiversity is in peril and its loss poses big financial risks to businesses and the global economy. More than half of the world's economic output — or about $44 trillion — is moderately or highly dependent on nature, according to the World Economic Forum. Moreover, the collapse of biodiverse ecosystems could hurt global GDP by $2.7 trillion annually by 2030, the World Bank warns in a new report.

Until recently, biodiversity loss was rarely viewed as a substantial risk to corporations. But that is changing and a new task force has been formed to help companies and financial institutions better understand the scope of the risk. The Task Force on Nature-related Financial Disclosures, or TNFD, aims to create a voluntary framework that companies can use to assess their nature-related risks and opportunities.

In this episode, we talk with Elizabeth Mrema, who is co-chair of the TNFD, about the goals of the task force, how she envisions them being implemented and how biodiversity is inherently linked to climate change.

More than 50 years ago, explorer Jacques Cousteau introduced millions of viewers to the marvels of the undersea world. In 2021, the ESG world is increasingly focused on biodiversity, and the oceans are a big part of that picture. Goods and services from the world's oceans and coasts are worth at least $2.5 trillion annually, while the overall value of the ocean as an asset is at least 10 times that amount, according to a 2015 estimate from the WWF.

In this week's episode, we interview Cousteau's grandson, Philippe, the co-founder of a nonprofit called EarthEcho International that works on ocean health.

"It's important to start thinking about a restoration ethic and returning the oceans to abundance," says Philippe. "For far too long, the environmental movement has been a movement of deprivation and doom and gloom. It has not been enough of a movement of opportunity and hope."

We also hear from Doug Heske, CEO of impact investing company Newday Impact that has teamed up with Philippe to promote ocean restoration, especially among younger investors. And we interview fund manager Paul Buchwitz from one of Germany's largest asset managers, DWS, about how the company is aiming to ocean-related risks while tapping into new investment opportunities offered by ocean restoration projects.

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Investors are increasingly calling on companies to reflect climate-related risks in their financial results. In September 2020, global investor groups representing more than $103 trillion wrote an open letter asking companies and their auditors to include climate-related risks in financial reporting.

Accounting standard setters and international auditing boards are also requesting that firms pay more attention to future climate risks when they produce their financial results.

"There has been a big kind of anomaly there, almost a loophole, that climate has not been taken into account," David Pitt-Watson, executive fellow at Cambridge University's Judge Business School, tells us.

We also interview International Accounting Standards Board (IASB) Vice Chair Sue Lloyd about plans for a new international sustainability standards board.

"I still talk to a lot of investors who are surprised that there isn't more information in the notes to the financial statements about the assumptions that have been used," Sue says.

And we speak to Veronica Poole of Deloitte for an auditor's point of view. She says recent guidance the International Auditing and Assurance Standards Board (IAASB) issued on the topic of climate-related risk "is extremely valuable, and I think certainly should be looked at and used by auditors in their work as they challenge the assertions made by clients around the impact of climate change risks and opportunities on their business."