From Apple to Volkswagen: the companies SRI investors want to meet in 2016
The recently launched 2015 Independent Research in Responsible Investment survey lists the top 10 companies that sustainability-focused and SRI investors and corporate governance analysts would like to meet in 2016: Volkswagen, Unilever, Google, Apple, Exxon, Natura, BP, JPMorgan, Nestlé and Glencore. The survey polled more than 1,200 investors, analysts and company managers globally. Alongside the ‘would like to meet’ list, it found that investor relations managers are increasingly taking control of SRI and corporate governance communications: 47 percent of companies say the IR team is in charge of these relationships, compared with 30 percent last year. The survey also found that 68 percent of asset managers see direct contact with companies on sustainability and corporate governance issues as important or very important to their investment research process. Summarising the findings, Steve Kelly of WeConvene Extel argues that “the strongest messages from this research are that sustainable investment has become professionalised, and company-analyst-investor access has become critical.” (IR Magazine)
Climate Change
2016 set to be hottest year on record globally
2016 is set to be the warmest year ever recorded, according to a forecast issued by the UK Met Office. The forecast comes just five days after 195 nations agreed a historic deal to fight global warming at a UN summit in Paris by keeping the world’s temperature rise under 2⁰C, with an ambition to restrict the rise to 1.5⁰C. Climate change and the peaking of the El Niño weather phenomenon are expected to drive the global average temperature next year above the record now certain to be set for 2015. The Met Office forecast indicates the global average temperature in 2016 will be 1.14⁰C above pre-industrial temperatures. They added that there was just a 5 percent chance the global average temperature in 2016 would be below that in 2015. “The vast majority of the warming is global warming, but the icing on the cake is the big El Niño event,” said Prof Adam Scaife, head of monthly to decadal prediction at the Met Office. (Guardian)
Policy
Australian government wins plain packaging case against Philip Morris Asia
The Australian federal government has won its case against tobacco giant Philip Morris Asia challenging Australia’s tobacco plain-packaging laws. It means the laws, introduced in 2011, will remain in place. The tribunal issued a unanimous decision agreeing with Australia’s position that it has no jurisdiction to hear Philip Morris’s claim. Philip Morris has slammed the decision. “It is regrettable that the outcome hinged entirely on a procedural issue that Australia chose to advocate instead of confronting head on the merits of whether plain packaging is legal or even works,” said Marc Firestone, Philip Morris international senior vice president. Fiona Nash, Minister for Rural Health, has welcomed the decision, saying plain packaging is a legitimate public health measure which is consistent with Australia’s international obligations. “Smoking does untold harm to Australians, causing deaths from cancer, lung and heart disease, and hurting families,” she said. (Sunday Morning Herald)
Corporate Reputation
Nigerian farmers cleared to sue Shell in Dutch court
Nigerian farmers will have the chance to sue oil multinational Shell in a Dutch court for pollution they blame on leaking pipelines, a Dutch appeals court has ruled. Activists said the ruling sets a landmark legal precedent. “There is now jurisprudence that means victims of human rights violations or pollution can sue Dutch multinationals in the Netherlands,” said Geert Ritsema of the Dutch arm of Friends of the Earth, the environmental group that is also involved in the case. The case centres on a charge from four farmers that Shell and its Nigerian unit are liable for damages caused by leaks from two underground oil pipes from 2004-7. Shell has argued that it has no liability in the case and that Dutch courts did not have jurisdiction. In a written reaction, Shell’s Nigerian subsidiary said it was disappointed. “We believe allegations concerning Nigerian plaintiffs in dispute with a Nigerian company, over issues which took place within Nigeria, should be heard in Nigeria,” it said. (ABC News)
Conservation
Australia ‘disappointed’ by Japan whaling, says PM in Tokyo
Australian PM Malcolm Turnbull has said he is “very disappointed that Japan has resumed whaling in the Southern Ocean”. He made the comments as he began a brief visit to Tokyo, his first since becoming leader in September. Mr Turnbull later met Japan’s PM Shinzo Abe – he has vowed to raise the whaling issue with Mr Abe. As “good friends” the two countries “should be upfront and frank about our differences of opinion, put them on the table and deal with them,” he added, and should not let them “erode the good will and the rest of the relationship”. Japan suspended its Antarctic hunt last year following an International Court of Justice ruling against it. But its whaling fleet set out for the Southern Ocean again earlier this month, with a target of 333 mink whales. The decision to resume hunting sparked a formal protest by 33 countries, including Australia and New Zealand. (BBC)
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