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The French bank is under pressure to reveal the carbon footprint of its bond business. A group of investment managers with $777 billion in combined assets is using the bank’s AGM to demand that it start disclosing the greenhouse gas emissions tied to its capital markets operations.

Source: Bloomberg

Source: Bloomberg

On Friday, TotalEnergies’ CEO Patrick Pouyanné declared that the company’s board is considering moving its primary listing to the US as the European shareholder base now holds a minority position in the company’s capital mainly due to the strict European ESG standards that discourage investments in fossil fuels. The American shareholder base, on the other hand, represents over 45% of Total’s capital. Source: FactSet

The Swiss National Bank disclosed the carbon footprint of its investment portfolio for the first time, responding to critics who have demanded it take a more active stance on climate change. The SNB said it’s “not authorized to pursue structural policies” and pursuing such actions could make it more difficult for its to fulfill its primary mandate of inflation control. The SNB’s environmental rules only ban coal miners. That means its holdings include firms involved in fracking, and the oil and gas industries.
Source: Bloomberg

Through Document Search, FactSet searched for the term “ESG” in the conference call transcripts of all the S&P 500 companies that conducted earnings conference calls from December 15 through March 7. Of these companies, 29 cited the term “ESG” during their earnings calls for the fourth quarter. This number is below the 5-year average of 82 and below the 10-year average of 43. In fact, this is the lowest number of S&P 500 companies citing “ESG” on earnings calls going back to Q2 2019 (22). Since peaking at 155 in Q4 2021, the number of S&P 500 companies citing “ESG” on quarterly earnings calls has declined (quarter-over-quarter) in nine of the past ten quarters. At the sector level, the Financials (6), Utilities (5), and Health Care (4) sectors have the highest number of S&P 500 companies citing “ESG” on earnings calls for Q4. On the other hand, the Utilities (17%) and Energy (15%) sectors have the highest percentages of S&P 500 companies citing “ESG” on earnings calls for Q4. source : factset

ETFs that invest in companies with at least 25% women on their boards outperformed by 2.2% in 2023 rivals that invest in firms with fewer female directors. Statistical analysis suggests that relationship may be more causal than coincidental, adding to the value proposition of female corporate oversight.

Source: Bloomberg Intelligence

The dwindling demand is evident in the Americas from the slowdown in sales of new exchange-traded funds and the pickup in fund closures and outflows, according to senior ESG strategist at Bloomberg Intelligence. In 2023, the region saw just 48 new ETFs introduced, down from 104 in 2022 and 125 in 2021, data compiled by Bloomberg Intelligence show. A net $4.3 billion was pulled last year from ESG-focused ETFs in the US, marking the first-ever annual outflows. The $13 billion iShares ESG Aware MSCI USA ETF (ticker ESGU), the largest ESG-focused ETF, is seeing continued outflows this year, with $809 million yanked from the fund after a $9 billion exodus last year. Meanwhile, 36 ESG-labeled ETFs were liquidated in the Americas during 2023, more than double the prior year, data from Bloomberg Intelligence show. Almost 60% of the funds that were closed were actively managed. source : yahoo!finance, bloomberg

The low-cost business model that democratized air travel in recent decades has now become an unlikely template for reducing pollution. That’s because budget airlines’ obsession with lowering weight in order to save fuel also happens to produce the best emissions metrics in the skies.

Source Bloomberg, Envest Global