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by , and - Twenty-four of 26 ESG index funds covering both U.S. and global stocks outperformed comparable conventional funds during the COVID-19 pandemic.
investment
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by Aaron Minnick and Will Anderson - June 18, 2020The Trillion Trees initiative and major corporations are looking to invest in tree-planting. TerraMatch connects these investors with trusted local experts who grow trees responsibly and at scale.
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by Helen Mountford - April 30, 2020The COVID-19 pandemic illuminates the need to build back better and create resilience to future crises, including the impacts of climate change.
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by Leonardo Martinez-Diaz and Lauren Sidner - April 15, 2020To manage the twin threats of the coronavirus pandemic and climate change, building resilience against both is imperative and urgent. We are going to have to multitask on this one, as delay will cost lives and livelihoods.
publication
by Colin Strong, Samantha Kuzma, Samuel Vionnet and Paul Reig - January 2020This paper proposes a framework to calculate the cost required to deliver sustainable water management to a geography. The paper then applies the framework to estimate the costs of delivering sustainable water management for all countries and major basins around the world.
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by Jack McClamrock, Lihuan Zhou and Giulia Christianson - October 10, 2019We analyzed the effects of water shortages on five publicly traded Indian thermal power companies. In some cases, drought caused significant financial impacts, and investors should start stress-testing their portfolios now for climate impacts.
publication
Financial Implications of Parched Power: Insights from an Analysis of Indian Thermal Power Companies
This paper provides quantitative evidence to help investors better understand and measure the financial impacts from water shortages in the thermal power sector, drawing on data and analysis of Indian companies. It introduces a new methodology to estimate the water shortage-induced impacts to earnings on five Indian thermal power companies from FY 2014-2017. It also uses outputs from climate models to analyze potential future changes to water availability in India, which could increase the risk of water shortages.
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by Ariel Pinchot and Giulia Christianson - October 03, 2019WRI's new Green Targets Tool shows that only half of the world's largest private-sector banks have made a sustainable finance commitment — and the targets vary considerably.
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by Sabin Ray, Caroline Gagné, Adam Dolin and Lissa Glasgo - July 11, 2019Forests are essential for lives and livelihoods. As these benefits become better understood and valued, investors in sustainable forestry are seeing financial returns that outperform investments in conventional timber.
project
Supporting local businesses pioneer affordable, reliable and clean energy solutions for all.
blog post
by Lihuan Zhou and Giulia Christianson - May 17, 2019Over 150,000 chartered financial analysts, including portfolio managers and research analysts at investment management firms, have received new guidance on how to incorporate environmental, social and governance (ESG) strategies into their work, marking a significant step towards the mainstream for sustainable investing.
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by Ariel Pinchot, Jack McClamrock and Giulia Christianson - April 22, 2019The world's largest asset management firm is one of the most powerful investors in the world. Despite last year's declaration of a shift towards sustainability, BlackRock still has a ways to go before sustainability can be called one of its core principles.
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by Sarah Parsons - January 11, 2019From sustainable fashion to "micromobility," seven stories playing out in 2019 will influence the future of environment and international development.
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by Ichiro Sato and Giulia Christianson - November 30, 2018Japan’s has the world’s third-largest asset management market, with its financial institutions managing nearly $30 trillion. Two hurdles stand in the way of the country realizing its full sustainable investment potential.
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by Steve Barker - September 06, 2018As WRI's CFO, Steve Barker often fields questions on how WRI invests its endowment sustainably. The short answer is that we integrate sustainability across our entire portfolio. A new commentary by Giulia Christianson and Ariel Pinchot offers a more nuanced explanation for our approach — and describes how we got here.
commentary
September 06, 2018
Sustainable investing is the new black: essential, ubiquitous and a subject of forward-looking discussion. But this is no passing fashion. What was once a niche investment approach is becoming mainstream, and WRI is learning the nitty-gritty of it through its own endowment journey.
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by Andrew Steer, Helen Mountford and Molly McGregor - September 05, 2018New research finds that ambitious climate action could yield a direct economic gain of $26 trillion (cumulative) by 2030. It could also generate more than 65 million new low-carbon jobs in 2030—equivalent to the entire workforces of the UK and Egypt combined—and avoid more than 700,000 premature deaths from air pollution.
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by Sarah Parsons - January 26, 2018Mahindra Rise Chairman Anand Mahindra told a World Economic Forum crowd that climate action is “the next century’s biggest business and financial opportunity.”
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by Leonardo Martinez-Diaz - January 19, 2018The World Economic Forum's new Global Risks Report is out and the results are clear: Business leaders are increasingly concerned about climate change's effect on their bottom lines.