Posts by Broc Romanek
US announces withdrawal from Paris Agreement
Here’s the intro from this Columbia Law School note: “President Trump has announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris Agreement – the global accord which implements the objectives of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. Under the agreement, the U.S. had previously submitted a Nationally Determined Contribution (NDC) in which…
Read MoreThe relationship between employee diversity and stock performance
Here’s a note from Alex Edmans: Most studies on diversity focus on the boardroom, because that’s where the data is easiest to gather. A new paper, just accepted for publication in Financial Management, studies diversity in the workforce, extracting demographic data from employee profiles and resumes from online sources such as LinkedIn. The authors find…
Read MoreHow companies can pursue racial equity
– There is a business case for racial equity. – There are 4 potential cultural futures for the US. Here’s a 71-page report from Deloitte – entitled “The Equity Imperative” – that lays out how companies can identify unfounded cultural assumptions and biases so that they can tackle them. It makes the business case for…
Read MoreEarth surpasses 1.5 degrees C in hottest year on record
Here’s the intro from this “Scientific American” article: It’s official: 2024 is the hottest year on record—and the first to exceed 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial temperatures. It’s another milestone that underscores how far the present climate has shifted from that of the past because of the continued burning of fossil fuels.…
Read MoreThe use of ESG for credit ratings matters
– Companies with a better ESG score have lower credit risk and higher credit rating. – Correlation is greatest for poor ESG scored companies, indicating ESG scores are most useful in identifying high-risk companies. Here’s a note from Marie-Josee Privyk: Interesting study from Federated Hermes – International showing a positive correlation between ESG scores and…
Read MoreEFRAG releases sustainability reporting standard for small companies
Here’s news from “ESG Today”: The European Financial Reporting Advisory Group (EFRAG) announced the release of its voluntary sustainability reporting standard for non-listed SMEs (VSME), aimed at enabling small companies to report on ESG issues in a simplified and consistent way. EFRAG was mandated by the European Commission to develop sustainability reporting standards for the…
Read MoreCalifornia gives companies extra year to comply with new climate disclosure rules
Here’s news from “ESG Today”: The California Air Resources Board (CARB), the regulator charged with developing and enforcing new regulations requiring large companies to disclose their value chain emissions and report on climate-related financial risks, announced that it will ease emissions reporting requirements and not pursue enforcement action in the first year of reporting, in…
Read MoreIf ESG ratings are free, does that mean they’re crappy?
– Free ESG rating scores might mean they are valued at zero. – The psychology is that people value something based on how much they pay for it. Recently, I saw someone post this on social media, “Is the reason ESG scores are now available free that they often don’t reveal much useful info about…
Read MoreYes, take care of that low-hanging fruit. But then what?
So we’ve written a few blogs about starting small for those that don’t have the budget – or who aren’t quite sure how to get started with this ESG reporting stuff. I’ve heard a lot of anecdotes about companies who had stories to tell, but didn’t realize that they indeed had those. They hadn’t captured…
Read MoreHow to conduct a climate risk “scenario analysis”
– Running a scenario analysis helps to formulate your climate strategy. – Conducting scenario analyses might be easier – and cheaper – than you expect. Here’s an excerpt of this note from Natixis’ Harald Walkate: You might have noticed through my posts that when it comes to understanding climate investment risk, I’m a fan of…
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