What do we think? In our latest blog, Peter Truesdale weighs in on China's carbon reduction plans.
Responsible Investment
Goldman Sachs plans $40 billion clean energy investments
Goldman Sachs will today announce plans to invest $40 billion in clean energy projects over the coming decade, after identifying the sector as one of the biggest opportunities to emerge since it started investing in emerging markets more than a decade ago. The bank plans to channel client money and a smaller amount of its own funds towards investment and financing in solar, wind, hydro, biofuels, biomass conversion, energy efficiency, energy storage, green transportation, efficient materials, LED lighting and transmission projects. Goldman Sachs economists believe demand for these technologies is set to take-off as countries with large manufacturing sectors such as China and Brazil look to cut their emissions.
Investors urge Rio Summit to deliver global environmental reporting rules
A group of institutional investors, green NGOs and UN agencies have this week written to ministers scheduled to attend the Rio+20 Earth Summit, calling on them to agree new rules requiring large businesses to report on material environmental, social and governance issues. The Corporate Sustainability Reporting Coalition (CSRC), which includes investors with approximately $2 trillion of funds under management, has endorsed an open letter sent to ministers by Paul Abberley, interim chief executive at Aviva Investors, that argues businesses should be forced to report on environmental issues or explain why they are not material to their operations.
Senior execs say sustainability is "vital" to future growth
78% of global senior executives believe that sustainability plays a "vital" role in the future growth of their businesses, jumping to over 91% in emerging markets, according to a study by Accenture. Of the 250 leading business people surveyed in the report, 83% see expenditure on sustainability as an investment in their business, rather than as a cost burden. "[Sustainability] is more and more growth driven… Long-term growth is becoming more visible as the reason for investing in this space", said Bruno Berthon, global managing director of sustainability services at Accenture.
Overseas investors join in criticism of UK energy bill
Two large overseas investors in the UK energy market have joined the chorus of criticism of the government's new energy bill. The CEO of German-based E.ON, one of the big six electricity providers in Britain, said national subsidy schemes for renewables such as Britain's new contracts for difference proposal had helped "bust" the EU's emissions trading system (ETS), and that renewable energy regimes throughout the EU should be made "coherent and consistent" so that the cap-and-trade scheme can be revitalised. Meanwhile, Norway's Statkraft said on Wednesday that it would not be able to proceed with a giant £30 billion offshore wind farm until ongoing "uncertainty" was lifted.
Plans by PepsiCo to take its largest manufacturing factories off the water grid by 2018 have been singled out by the environmental think-tank Green Alliance as an example of best practice. The global drinks brand is looking to utilise the embedded water in potatoes by employing stack heat technology to capture the steam created by cooking them. During 2012, the company will be trialling these technologies at two plants in Belgium and Holland, with plans to adapt and bring together the separate technologies in the UK in following years.
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