TBLI Weekly - August 8th, 2023
Your weekly guide to Sustainable Investment
Upcoming Featured TBLI Events
TBLI Circle - Join & watch TBLI's best past events
TBLI will bring back some of our best TBLI Events this summer. One event we liked was discussing a film produced by Michael Moore, called Planet of the Humans. No need to register. Freely available for all TBLi Circle Members.
Jeff Gibbs made a film about Renewable Energy, Growth, and Sustainability that surprised, angered, and received critical acclaim. The film argues that Renewable Energy uses a lot of carbon, we can't keep growing, and wind and solar won't save us. Is this true? We have a panel of experts discussing the film and the future of the Human Race. Join Wouter van Dieren, Jochen Wermuth, Kingsmill Bond, Hunter Lovins, and Sandrine Dixson-Declève.
Date & time: Fri, August 18 - 4:00pm - 6:00pm CEST
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send an email to This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it. with the event you wish to attend
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Sixth Vienna Impact Investment Forum
10 & 11 October 2023
at the Hotel Imperial in Vienna
Organized by Advantage Family Office
More info
'Can the wealth industry overcome its greenwashing tendencies?'
By: Tom Cassidy - FT
Cop27 took place at the end of 2022, bringing governments, businesses and civil society groups together to address the global problems associated with climate change, and it prompted discussion of the financial sector’s role in this.
Top of the agenda for the wealth industry, as it considers the part it could play in enabling the transition to a low carbon economy, was how to allocate resources effectively.
One innovative example of how this could develop was the launch of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance, an enlightened group of more than 70 asset managers with more than $11tn (£8.6tn) in assets, which set its goal to align its investment portfolios with those of the Paris Agreement.
The implementation of the Paris Agreement was designed to combat the increase in global average temperatures with economic and social transformation.
There has already been significant effort from both regulators and investors within the wealth industry to help better financial markets and help align their goals with those of the Paris Agreement.
It recognised the need for private investment to support the transition to a low carbon economy.
This was a major development for the wealth industry as investors aimed to reduce portfolio emissions by a quarter in the next five years, with rolling five-year targets to follow, until net zero is achieved by 2050.
Combined with this, Cop27 offered new tools and guidelines to help financial institutions assess and disclose the climate-related risks and opportunities in their investment portfolios.
The intention was to allow investors to make informed decisions about where to invest in order to facilitate greater transparency and accountability.
Putting money where the mouth is
With the majority of defined contribution pension providers failing on climate change, this has become urgent.
Firstly, more than £300bn of UK pensions are invested in companies at risk of driving deforestation and other negative environmental impacts.
Secondly, just over half of providers are yet to publish new emission reduction targets.
It has now become clear that UK pension schemes cannot realistically act on climate change without driving their asset manager and portfolio companies towards a net zero target.
This reinforces the view that the UK pension industry is struggling to keep up with addressing the climate emergency.
Greenwashing
Greenwashing is a particularly important issue as the industry acknowledges a lack of rigour in the net-zero climate targets set by some wealth businesses.
In response the UN has recommended new targets, including reducing the overall emissions within the supply chain over the short, medium, and long term.
Read full article
Climate leaders on what brings them hope
It’s been a summer of wildfires and record temperatures. If you’re working on the frontlines of the climate crisis, how do you stay positive? We asked activists, scientists, lawyers, politicians and business leaders ‘what brings you hope today?’ Here’s what they had to say
Charles Watson, founder of River Action UK
“If one thinks of the aggregate odds stacked against us, it’s sometimes easy to lose hope. But if one thinks of the ever-increasing volumes of talent and energy that are working against these odds to take us to a more sustainable future, then there has to be a possibility that we can rescue biodiversity from the brink of disaster.”
Farhana Yamin, climate lawyer, author, and activist
“I feel anger, frustration and grief in roughly equal amounts – at where we now find ourselves. Scientists, activists and those representing vulnerable countries, including myself, have been working flat out for 30 years to warn people and get governments and polluters to act. It can be difficult to feel optimistic or motivated at times like this.
But I know we have to continue our fight for climate justice so that we don’t let polluters and the powerful off the hook. Confronting, challenging and collectively calling out power and elites who have caused irreparable harms is what keeps me going. Love, rage and solidarity with all those affected by extreme heat especially those losing their homes and lands. We will not let injustice prevail.”
Ben Goldsmith, financier, environmentalist and author of ‘God is an Octopus’
“I’m lucky enough to live among a growing cluster of farms in Somerset’s Brewham Valley which are working together to restore a once-great wood pasture known as Selwood Forest. The solace I found in the recovering tapestry of nature all around me has been a lifesaver since the devastating loss of my daughter Iris in 2019.
Natural processes no longer play out almost anywhere in Britain. We can barely conceive of the magic and natural abundance that was known by previous generations. Now a public clamour is growing for the restoration of nature, on which we depend for everything. Once you’ve visited an area that is being rewilded, and have experienced for yourself birdsong so intense that it can be overwhelming, you cannot help but understand the power of nature to restore itself, and fast, given the chance. This is what gives me great joy and hope.”
Read full article
Progress on slowing deforestation could boost climate efforts, say experts
Falling deforestation rates in countries including Indonesia, Malaysia, Colombia and Brazil could provide a boost to climate and biodiversity efforts, experts say, in the run-up to a key summit on the future of the Amazon rainforest.
In the coming days, the Brazilian president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, will host a pan-Amazonian summit on the future of the world’s largest rainforest, with leaders from Venezuela to Peru hoping to present a plan at Cop28 to halt their destruction. Experts have said if rich countries provide backing to tropical forested countries it could help governments deliver on Cop26 promises to halt and reverse deforestation by 2030.
Carlos Nobre, one of Brazil’s leading climate scientists who has warned that the Amazon is close to passing a tipping point, said there was a moment of opportunity to protect the world’s forests.
“I can see a greater political movement all over the world to reduce deforestation – Indonesia, some countries in Africa, many countries in the Amazon. In Brazil, there was a significant reduction in deforestation in June. Ideally speaking, I hope when you compute 2023 compared with 2022, there may be a 50% reduction, which would be very good. If Brazil wants to reach zero deforestation by 2030, getting a 50% drop would be very good news,” he said.
Brazil’s environment minister, Marina Silva, told the Guardian last week that deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon fell by at least 60% in July.
Until recently, Brazil under Lula’s first administration was the only example of a large tropical forested country that had achieved a substantial and sustained drop in forest loss, falling by 84% between 2004 and 2012, a trend that was reversed under the presidency of Jair Bolsonaro.
But experts say Indonesia and Malaysia – the world’s two largest palm oil producers – have followed Brazil’s historic example. Indonesia reduced its primary forest loss by 64%, comparing the three years after the fires with 2020 to 2022, more than any other country, according to monitoring organisation Global Forest Watch (GFW). Malaysia achieved a 57% drop.
With Brazil again recording a signigicant drop in deforestation since the start of Lula’s current presidency, and Colombia showing signs that its forest loss is slowing, there is cautious optimism, despite continued losses in 2022.
Read full article
‘We struggle to find biodiversity champion companies in Asia’
Federated Hermes' Ingrid Kukuljan and Sonya Likhtman discuss the challenges of investing in nature
Preventing biodiversity loss is one of the key ways of tackling climate change, both in terms of mitigation and adaptation, and in Asia, one of the most biodiverse places in the world, the need is acute. But, Federated Hermes’ Ingrid Kukuljan (pictured, left) and Sonya Likhtman (pictured, right) told ESG Clarity Asia, the attention from private finance in the region is still at the early stages.
Data from the World Resources Institute shows that the illegal conversion of forests produces 2.7 gigatonnes of carbon dioxide annually. Of this, 81% if the illegal conversion happens in Asia.
“The first problem is there is lack of awareness and commitment in Asia. If you look at the target setting and what the companies are doing, it is very much behind the Western world,” Ingrid Kukuljan, head of impact and sustainable investing at Federated Hermes Limited said.
“If you looked at industrial farming practices, and if you look at the growth in animal protein consumption, the majority is driven by Asia, whereas it has been declining in the Western world. So, the unfortunate data is that today livestock accounts for 60% and humans for 36% of all mammals, and wildlife only for 4%, which is the result of the industrial livestock farming, also considered the main cause of animal cruelty globally,” she added referencing data from Ecowatch.
In line with this, Federated Hermes’ inaugural biodiversity fund has no exposure to Asia.
“We struggled to find a publicly-quoted company that meets our standards to be considered as a biodiversity champion and which satisfies our liquidity criteria” Kukuljan explained, adding that the genesis of the fund is to only allocate capital to those that are helping preserve or restore biodiversity.
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Winter heatwave in Andes is sign of things to come, scientists warn
Human-caused climate disruption and El Niño push temperature in mountains to 37C
Exceptional winter heat in the Andean mountains of South America has surged to 37C, prompting local scientists to warn the worst may be yet to come as human-caused climate disruption and El Niño cause havoc across the region.
The heatwave in the central Chilean Andes is melting the snow below 3,000 metres (9,840ft), which will have knock-on effects for people living in downstream valleys who depend on meltwater during the spring and summer.
Tuesday was probably the warmest winter day in northern Chile in 72 years, according to Raul Cordero, a climate scientist at the University of Groningen, who said the 37C recorded at the Vicuña Los Pimientos station in the Coquimbo region was caused by a combination of global heating, El Niño and easterly gusts, known by locals as Terral winds that bring hot, dry weather.
Dozens of meteorological monitoring stations at more than 1,000 metres altitude recorded temperatures above 35C in winter, according to the Extreme Temperatures Around The World blog.
Cordero said the unusual heat at this altitude was a worry. “The main problem is how the high temperatures exacerbate droughts (in eastern Argentina and Uruguay and accelerate snow melting.”
Water shortages are already a dire problem in and around Uruguay’s capital, Montevideo, where reservoirs are running dry and tap water is no longer drinkable.
South America has suffered one of the warmest January-to-July periods on record. Chile has been among the worst affected countries with fires at the beginning of the year and now extended droughts. Cordero said Santiago was sweltering in its ninth heatwave since January and was expected to break the annual record of 10 heatwaves, set in 2020.
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