ESG Currents

Investor attitudes toward sustainable investing are diverging across regions, with implications for capital allocation, manager selection and investment opportunities. On this week’s episode of Sustainability Currents, Annachiara Marcandalli, partner and head of Sustainable and Impact Solutions at Cambridge Associates, joins Bloomberg Intelligence’s Shaheen Contractor to discuss evolvi...

The AI boom has largely been framed as a race for chips and compute, but as the technology scales, some of its biggest constraints are becoming increasingly physical. On this week’s episode of the Sustainability Currents podcast, Stephen Byrd, global head of thematic and sustainability research at Morgan Stanley, joins Shaheen Contractor, Bloomberg Intelligence senior sustainable finance res...

“You’re going to be in the red if you don’t go green,” says Ben Makowiecki, agriculture sustainability director at Lloyds Banking Group. In this episode of the Sustainability Currents podcast, Bloomberg Intelligence analystGrace Osborne speaks with Makowiecki about why farm resilience is increasingly financial resilience. They explore how finance can better reflect the real...

Traditional development funding is under pressure even as the need for investment in healthcare, water, energy access and other basic services remains high. Can innovative finance help draw more private capital into these areas? On this week’s episode of the Sustainability Currents podcast, John Simon, co-founder and managing partner of Total Impact Capital, joins Shaheen Contractor, Bloombe...

Climate risks are becoming easier to identify and model, but turning that knowledge into projects remains a major challenge. Michael Berkowitz, executive director of the University of Miami’s Climate Resilience Institute, joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Sustainability Analyst Chris Ratti to discuss how cities can move from planning to implementation, which technologies could reshape resi...

Solar and storage account for 70% of all new capacity added to the electric grid in the first half of 2026, and the US now has enough solar capacity to power more than 50 million American homes, according to a recent report from the Solar Energy Industries Association (SEIA) and Wood Mackenzie. On this week’s episode of the Sustainability Currents podcast, Tim Pawlenty, former governor of Mi...

AI’s rapid expansion is turning data centers into critical economic and energy infrastructure — and creating one of sustainable finance’s fastest-growing markets. Sustainable debt tied to data centers has more than doubled since 2023 as operators tap green bonds, loans and securitized markets to fund hyperscale growth. On this episode of Sustainability Currents, Romina Reversi an...

A recent analysis by PwC of more than 3,500 companies finds that eight in 10 held steady or accelerated the timeline for their climate targets, and more companies increased their decarbonization ambition than lowered it. On this week’s episode of the Sustainability Currents podcast, David Linich, a PwC partner who leads the firm’s Decarbonization and Sustainable Operations offering, jo...

El Niño is already affecting weather around the world, with droughts in India, floods in Hawaii and a sinkhole in front of Nicolas Cage’s house in Malibu. Join Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Climate Analyst Andrew Stevenson and his guest, Hansi Singh, PhD and CEO of Planette AI to discuss what to expect from Niño over the coming months from the perspective of a long-term weather...

New York City faces competing demands for capital as artificial intelligence reshapes the labor market, electricity needs rise, housing remains scarce and physical climate risks intensify. NYC Comptroller Mark Levine joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior Sustainable Finance Analyst Chris Ratti to discuss how the city should weigh those pressures, from AI’s implications for jobs and tax revenue...

Gary Gensler, 33rd Chair of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (2021-25), professor of the Practice of Global Economics and Management at the MIT Sloan School of Management and co-host of the Power and Consequences podcast, joins a special crossover episode of Sustainability Currents and Votes and Verdicts to examine how the SEC can balance its three key mandates: investor protection, capit...

The chemical industry is a critical energy-transition industry, with hydrogen, jet fuel and ammonia being produced with a wide variety of inputs, from coal to renewable feedstocks like cooking oil and animal fats. On this episode of Sustainable Currents, Bloomberg Intelligence senior climate analyst Andrew Stevenson is joined by Elena Scaltritti, CEO of Topsoe, to discuss the importance of catalys...

Emerging markets are expected to account for much of the world’s future economic growth, but meeting their infrastructure, climate and development needs will require trillions of dollars in new investment. As governments, development banks and private investors work to close that financing gap, sustainable investment strategies are evolving beyond traditional ESG approaches. Blended finance...

As global heat waves become more frequent and severe, climate-technology startups are playing an increasingly important role in innovation needed to accelerate decarbonization and create new economic opportunities. Financing these emerging companies has become a critical task for climate-focused venture capital funds. In this episode of the Sustainability Currents podcast, Bloomberg Intelligence a...

Rising insurance costs, climate risk and new performance expectations are changing how commercial real estate is valued. In this Sustainability Currents episode, Bloomberg Intelligence Thematic Strategist Melanie Rua speaks with Breana Wheeler, director of operations for BREEAM USA about how independent building assessments are helping investors and owners evaluate resilience, operational efficien...

Bloomberg Intelligence’s ESG Currents is now Sustainability Currents, reflecting a broader focus on the investment risks and opportunities emerging from themes including climate change, water scarcity, consumer expectations, and regulatory scrutiny. In this special episode marking the relaunch, BI’s director of Sustainable Finance Research, Eric Kane, brings together the full team for...

Water underpins nearly every sector of the economy, yet institutional investment remains limited. On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Alexander Loucopoulos, partner at Sciens Water, joins Bloomberg Intelligence thematic strategist Melanie Rua to discuss how private capital can turn fragmented water markets and long-term infrastructure needs into investable opportunities. They...

Geopolitical tensions, commodity-price volatility and policy uncertainty have made energy dealmaking more complex, but they haven’t brought it to a halt. On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Jalal Nadeem, a faculty member at the Institute for Mergers, Acquisitions and Alliances and an M&A deal-structuring expert, joins Shaheen Contractor, Bloomberg Intelligence senio...

More than 10,000 companies have been certified as B Corps, which requires them to change their legal structures to ensure their boards consider all stakeholders, not just shareholders; measure and manage impact; and commit to continuous improvement. On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Clay Brown, chief standards officer at B Lab, joins Eric Kane, Bloomberg Intelligence direct...

From technology to food, global supply chains depend on Asia, making climate risks there relevant to investors everywhere. In this episode of ESG Currents, Bloomberg Intelligence sustainable-finance analysts Grace Osborne and Conrad Tan speak with Nana Li, Head of Sustainability and Stewardship for Asia Pacific at Impax Asset Management, about why sustainability in Asia is more than a compliance e...

Green-bond rules are spreading across governments, but fragmentation may emerge as a hurdle for sustainable finance. Different legal frameworks across jurisdictions are raising questions about how issuers and investors can move capital across borders without added complexity. On this week’s ESG Currents, Aldo Romani, head of sustainable finance, and Tomomitsu Maruta, sustainable finance offi...

As climate change intensifies, physical risks to property are mounting. On this episode of ESG Currents, Bloomberg Intelligence sustainable-finance senior analysts Gail Glazerman and Andy Stevenson speak with Daryl Fairweather, chief economist of Redfin, about how homebuyers are responding to physical risks, the challenges for home affordability — especially insurance costs — and how m...

How does a sustainability focus support a pension fund's duty to safeguard the retirement future of a country's workers? What does effective engagement with companies look like? In this ESG Currents episode, Shahida Jaffar, Head of Corporate Sustainability at Malaysia’s Employees Provident Fund, joins Bloomberg Intelligence ESG analyst Conrad Tan to discuss the key principles guiding EPF's e...

Global costs related to climate events, including damage, insurance premiums, maintenance and repair, have exceeded $20 trillion since the year 2000, according to Bloomberg Intelligence’s Climate Damages Tracker. This massive wealth transfer provides the context for BI’s Climate Economy 2026 Outlook report. On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Andy Stevenson, BI se...

Emerging markets are central to the global sustainability transition and increasingly at the forefront of innovation in sustainable finance, from debt-for-food swaps to biodiversity-linked sovereign bonds. On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Nicolas Jaquier, a portfolio manager on the emerging markets fixed income team at Ninety One, where he co-manages the Emerging Market Su...