ESGN News and Press, Columbia Sustainable International Equity Income From 09/01/21

The environmental element of ESG investing looms large for many investors today. One potential solution may be to classify some investments as partially aligned with the definition of sustainable, or fitting some but not all requirements - but the jury is still out on this. I...

The big story in asset management in recent years is the emergence of sustainability - and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) - focused funds. To have a meaningful influence on corporates and policymakers, asset managers need to collaborate with other industry players or NGOs...

Given the magnitude of the changes we foresee, long-term investors may find opportunities in the technologies and innovations that create renewable energy sources or reduce the carbon intensity of energy production. Net zero is about reducing greenhouse gas emissions so that over time...

We believe ignoring the effects of climate change on portfolios is not an option, and the window for investors to position portfolios may be shrinking. The U.S. Senate passed a $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill that now awaits a House vote. Congress will take up the $3.5 trillion spen...

UN report: The last decade was hotter than any period in 125,000 years, and humans are responsible. UN Secretary General called the report a "Code Red" for humanity and the death knell for fossil fuels. Shokeen: We project there will be rapid changes in the energy sector. Fo...

Total AUM for ESG/SRI funds is roughly $537.1 billion - 75% represented by actively managed funds. Actively managed funds make up the majority of AUM for both the equity (68%) and fixed income (94%) universe. Passive ESG/SRI equity funds have attracted $65.8 billion in net new mon...

The industry is now seeing an expansion in data-driven practices, with new ESG and climate datasets emerging and becoming mainstream. We explore what climate risk metrics are and how they are used today. As a relatively new area of risk analysis, climate data is still developing; cons...

For Q2 2021, the average equity fund and taxable fixed income fund posted a 6.36% and 1.55% return, respectively. Nonetheless, in a quasi-flight to safety and continued search for yield, bond investors pushed the 10-year Treasury yield down 29 basis points (bps) for Q2 to 1.45%. L...

We’ve moved past the early-cycle environment that predominated risk taking in 2020, post the pandemic lows, and we’re moving really into a mid-cycle environment, which tends to be constructive for risk. This mid-cycle environment is still going to be expansionary, albeit...

For many years, divestment has been seen as the fastest, most effective way to lower a portfolio’s carbon footprint - and many universities and affiliated foundations continue to grapple with the question of whether to divest or not. Materiality is the weighting of ESG characte...