January 2024 Newsletter
News & Commentaries by Ron Robins
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New Podcasts:
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DeSantis’s defeat is a warning to all: Don’t go up against ESG. “But the fates of Desantis and Ramaswamy should come as no surprise. Poll after poll has shown that attacks against responsible investing are political losers. Across party lines, Americans overwhelmingly support corporations’ efforts to invest responsibly, and 70 percent of Republicans oppose government interference on this.”
[COMMENTARY] The American public isn’t fooled. They see it’s big oil money behind the scenes pushing the anti-ESG agenda and most Americans are behind the green revolution.
DeSantis’s defeat is a warning to all: Don’t go up against ESG, by Kyle Herrig, January 27, 2024, The Hill, USA.
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Are women more effective in sustainable finance than men? “European funds managed by female or mixed-gender teams outperformed those led exclusively by men.”
[COMMENTARY] This article states that women have more of a ‘buy and hold’ strategy than men and that this characteristic is partly responsible for outperforming men in fund management.
Are women more effective in sustainable finance than men? By Julia Khandoshko, January 26, 2024, ESG Clarity, UK.
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Polluting Firms Earn Higher Returns. “But these low-scoring ESG stocks carry greater risks.”
[COMMENTARY] Companies just starting on their commitment to ESG or sustainability improvements often see significant stock price gains!
Polluting Firms Earn Higher Returns, by , January 24, 2024, Morningstar, USA.
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Who Made Newsweek’s 2024 List of America’s Most Responsible Companies? “We’ve culled through the 600 companies to find the beauty brands, personal care players, suppliers and retailers who made the cut this year.”
[COMMENTARY] Another good company ranking top American companies that ethical and sustainable investors might review.
Who Made Newsweek’s 2024 List of America’s Most Responsible Companies? January 25, 2024, Happi, USA.
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The Clean Energy Transition May Be Cheaper Than We Thought. “Cost estimates leave out some of the savings of using less fossil fuels, new analysis says.”
[COMMENTARY] Let’s hope this premise becomes true!
The Clean Energy Transition May Be Cheaper Than We Thought, by Dan Gearino, January 20, 2024, Mother Jones, USA.
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The Impact of ESG Risk on Stocks. “This article examines the impact of ESG risk on US stocks through the lens of Sustainalytics’ ESG risk-rating measure over the past decade… stocks with low ESG risk ratings… not only have higher realized returns but also provide better tail-risk protection than stocks with high ESG risk ratings… especially during the COVID-19 crisis.”
The Impact of ESG Risk on Stocks, by James X. Xiong, January 2024, Morningstar Investment Management, USA.
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The Global 100 list: How the world’s most sustainable corporations are driving the green transition. “Now in its 20th year, the Global 100 ranking reveals that corporate leaders are pouring more of their revenues into sustainable investments than ever.”
[COMMENTARY] The Global 100 ranking by Corporate Knights is probably the best company sustainability ranking globally. Unlike most other rankings, it takes into account the sustainability and utility towards a green environment of the revenues and investments of the companies it ranks!
The Global 100 list: How the world’s most sustainable corporations are driving the green transition, by Shawn McCarthy, January 17, 2024, Corporate Knights, Canada.
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A New Survey Finds Dropping ESG Support Among Young Investors. In just one year, the percentage of those ages 18 to 41 who said they were “very concerned about environmental issues” plummeted from 70 percent to 49 percent. Among Gen Z and millennial respondents, who had the previous year registered 82 percent support for fund managers using their influence to shape the social policies or practices of companies, only 62 percent now deemed this “very” or “extremely” important.”
[COMMENTARY] A decline in ESG interest is to be expected with the onslaught of anti-ESG articles in some business media. Also, when stocks or funds underperform, interest in them usually wanes too. I’m sure that over time and when ESG stocks and funds again outperform the markets, investor interest in ESG will again rise.
A New Survey Finds Dropping ESG Support Among Young Investors, byJonathon Wolf, January 16, 2024, Above The Law, USA.
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A new “world first” gold standard for EU green bonds. “As part of the European Commission’s strategy for financing the transition to a sustainable economy, the EU has been debating for some time how best to put in place a regulatory regime for EU green bonds. This has resulted in the long-awaited publication of the Regulation on EU Green Bonds (the EuGB Regulation) in the Official Journal of the EU on 30 November 2023. It is set to apply from 21 December 2024.”
[COMMENTARY] These EU green bond standards could become the world standard for green bonds in the next few years.
A new “world first” gold standard for EU green bonds, by Hogan Lovells, January 16, 2024, JD Supra, USA.
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Big U.S. Fund Companies Retreat on Support for ESG Proxy Votes. “More ‘no’ votes by U.S. funds on key ESG resolutions contrasts with continued backing from European money managers.”
[COMMENTARY] This is not surprising given the current environment in the USA. Most European investors still believe in ESG whereas, in the USA, many investors — particularly on the right of the political spectrum — have erroneously, come to doubt it! Thus, this is reflected in their proxy voting.
Big U.S. Fund Companies Retreat on Support for ESG Proxy Votes, by , January 11, 2024, Morningstar, USA.
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Green Investments Begin To Pay Off For Big Banks. “For the second year in a row, global banks made more money from green investments like underwriting bonds and providing loans for green projects than they earned from financing oil, gas and coal activities.”
[COMMENTARY] This is a great incentive for financial institutions to back the green agenda.
Green Investments Begin To Pay Off For Big Banks, by Steve Hanley, January 5th, 2024, CleanTechnica, USA.
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Four trends shaping sustainable finance’s future in 2024. ‘The last 12 months have revealed a growing standoff between governments, civil society organizations and climate scientists on one hand, and the oil and gas industry and their partners in the financial sector on the other.”
[COMMENTARY] Fundamentally, possibly most older, rich, right-wingers, — who largely populate the sectors in the quote above — don’t believe in the urgency of climate change. Also, they often have personal, significant investments in fossil fuels and heavy industry polluters. Hence, their reluctance to engage in the climate change narrative.
Four trends shaping sustainable finance’s future in 2024, by Eugene Ellmen, January 3, 2024, Corporate Knights, Canada.
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