The Responsible Investor Podcast

In recent years, corporates have increasingly been trying to work out how to approach nature reporting. How has the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) aided firms in their efforts? And what are the initial insights from Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reports regarding how corporates are approaching ESRS E4 Biodiversity and ecosystems? Stephanie Hime, foun...

Asset owners across the UK, Europe and US are sharpening their focus on asset manager stewardship, and an increasing regulatory focus on stewardship outcomes and transition-focused products is leading investors to think harder about how they can demonstrate that their own engagements are having an effect. Jennifer Walmsley, associate director for corporate engagement at the Institutional Investors...

Global investments in renewable energy reached a new record of more than $700 billion in 2024, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. But this year has brought uncertainty and challenges on many fronts, perhaps most notably from the new Trump administration. The good news is that uncertainty is something the sector is used to, says Jérôme Guillet, co-founder of renewables advisory firm Snow, a...

Net-zero as a concept is under pressure, and for investors to assess the best path forward, it is crucial to understand how companies and other holdings are managing this – and what efforts they are undertaking to navigate the transition. This is what the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) has helped investors with since its inception in 2017. Carmen Nuzzo, the executive director of TPI’s academi...

With big asset managers rushing to exit climate initiatives and ESG opponents taking centre stage in the US, responsible investment is under scrutiny as never before. What does this mean for up-and-coming asset owners with sustainability ambitions? This is a key question for Dan Mikulskis, CIO of People's Partnership, one of the fastest-growing workplace pension providers in the UK. In this episod...

Three years ago, in the run-up to COP26, financial institutions rushed to sign up to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) . A renewed focus on fiduciary duty, however, combined with concerns about the real-world impact of reducing portfolio emissions, is now prompting asset managers to rethink strategies and methodologies for net zero. Daisy Streatfeild has seen the issue from both...

After an autumn of devastating floods in Florida, Spain and southern Italy, the need to protect populations from the impacts of climate change has shot up the agenda for policymakers. Nature can play a crucial role in climate adaptation, from protecting coastlines from rising sea levels to slowing or reducing water run-off upstream of urban centres. In this episode, veteran investor Eoin Murray ta...

The global UN biodiversity summit delivered on the buzz – and had a huge private sector turnout. The overall outcomes, however, have been widely described as “a mixed bag” on the positive end of the scale, while many called it underwhelming. But investors did not leave Cali empty handed , with a flurry of announcements on nature transition plans , investment products, collective engagements and ma...

Mining is a notoriously dirty and dangerous business – so much so that it has often been shunned by responsible and risk-averse investors. In recent years, the  Brumadinho dam disaster  and the  Juukan Gorge scandal  have provided ample evidence of the environmental and social risks associated with the sector. Yet it is crucial to the energy transition. According to the Global Investor Commission...

When Responsible Investor talks to investors about transition finance, capital expenditure almost always features. Folksam’s chief economist Marcus Svedberg told RI earlier this year that studying capex flows is a good indicator of where companies are going, and that ideally “you want to be overwhelmed by how much they are investing in new technologies, technologies of the future”. And there are s...

Transition finance is the fastest-growing area in sustainable investment. Over the past two years, the amount invested in transition-focused funds in Europe doubled as inflows into traditional ESG funds stalled. The appeal of transition finance is obvious. It offers sustainability-minded investors access to a broader range of sectors and companies than “pure green” strategies, while at the same ti...

The UK’s Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) has put simplicity and consumer testing at the centre of its efforts to roll out fund labels to improve transparency of sustainable investment products. For managers that are in the middle of applying labels to their funds, the process has in many ways proved more challenging than first expected – so far, only two funds have publicly announced that they h...

After two years of rising commodity prices, surging energy sector profits and intensifying anti-ESG rhetoric in the US, it is easy to get the impression that investors are losing their appetite for sustainability. But industry veteran Lee Clements, now head of applied sustainable investment research at FTSE Russell, says reports of the death of ESG investing have been greatly exaggerated. In this...

Fast fashion’s climate issues get little investor attention, with household names largely absent from collaborative engagement initiatives and stewardship reports. This is despite the flurry of challenges associated with the fashion industry, which produces huge amounts of waste and is responsible for an estimated 8-10 percent of global emissions. But with an increasing regulatory focus on greenwa...

Exxon Mobil is taking legal action against activist investors , the UK has relaxed the rules for firms looking to list in London, and companies are holding their annual meetings behind closed doors. For Jen Sisson, the new CEO of the International Corporate Governance Network (ICGN), these developments are all part of a worrying erosion of shareholder rights in multiple jurisdictions around the wo...

Hundreds of financial institutions with more than $100 trillion in capital have signed up to reach net zero by 2050 or earlier, and many investors have committed to 2025 interim targets. In this inaugural episode of The Responsible Investor Podcast, Elza Holmstedt Pell and Paul Verney bring you insights from conversations with investors about how likely these targets are to be met. The discussion...

Introducing The Responsible Investor Podcast, where we'll delve into the latest developments and debates in sustainable investment. Hear our award-winning journalists and influential industry guests share their insights on topics such as net-zero, transition finance, biodiversity and nature, regulation, and ESG data and disclosure. To learn more and see all your subscription options, go to www.res...