Displaying items by tag: esg

(Washington)

ESG has been doing very well. Not only is it getting more public attention, but it is receiving significant inflows. Well, things are about to change from the corporate and regulatory perspectives as well. The Biden administration’s SEC is preparing to adopt a new policy on shareholder resolutions that relate to things like ESG and social justice. The Trump administration had made it very easy for companies to dismiss such resolutions as “micro management” but the current SEC aims to give them more teeth. While such resolutions—things like demands to report gross carbon emissions, or minority compensation—are not legally binding, they do put management under pressure to answer tough questions and garner a great deal of press.

FINSUM: This is going to compel top management to play ball with shareholders on resolutions they would otherwise love to ignore.

(New York)

Most bitcoin investors know it, but few else do: the bitcoin industry is ultra energy intensive as bitcoin mining takes mountains of electricity. Because of this, the surge in interest in ESG is casting a pall over the bitcoin frenzy. One research analyst summarized the situation very nicely, saying “Many companies have cozied up to Bitcoin in order to associate themselves with the digital currency’s technological mystique … As ESG funds start to flee Bitcoin, its price will begin a downward spiral. Stay away”.

FINSUM: This makes absolute sense. Bitcoin is highly energy inefficient, and therefore the combination of ESG considerations and likely government regulations make bitcoin look quite unattractive over the long term.

(New York)

When the average investor conceptualizes an ESG investment they are picturing diverting funds to a growing new wind energy company...see the full story on our partner Magnifi's site.

(New York)

One of the largest asset managers in the world made a potentially very worrying claim today: that ESG today is a lot like the tech bubble was in year 2000. The sovereign wealth fund of Norway’s CEO, Nicolai Tangen, says that much like dotcom stocks, ESG asset are trading at very frothy valuations. What is interesting about his claim, though, is that he is not focused on the potential “bubble”, but rather on what those valuations mean. “What is interesting is, if you compare the situation now with, for example, the situation before the year 2000, then the stock market was right that technology companies were going to do well in the future … But the valuation went a little high, so it came down again, but the technological development continued, said Tangen. He continued, “We may see something of the same sort now, that what is happening in the green shift is extremely important and real”.

FINSUM: So Tangen is saying there is a big bubble in ESG, but in the way only an ultra-long-term investor like a sovereign wealth fund can, he is focused on how the market is “right” about its long-term potential.

(New York)

ESG has been getting more and more mainstream, and yesterday it likely took the final hurdle to major acceptance...View the full story on our partner Magnifi’s site