Sustainability Oxford 2023

ESG corporate ratings are redrawing the financial landscape, yet investors often struggle to interpret them.

As we move into ESG 3.0, investors will need to look further to find investment opportunities. An area of interest is companies in a process of sustainable transition, says investment manager Yuko Takano

It’s not only companies with the stellar sustainability ratings that matter. Those with the scope to improve will not only make a difference to the world, but also stand to generate attractive returns.

The impact investing industry has evolved significantly, and continues to mature in a world that is slowly emerging from the COVID-19 pandemic and is fraught with economic inequities, social tensions and the climate crisis. As stakeholders globally grapple with ever-growing social and environmental challenges, impact investors are rising to meet them – by measuring and […]

Climate change is one of the most significant risks and opportunities we face as an intergenerational, global investor.

At CPP Investments, sustainable investing means anticipating and managing sustainability-related material business risks and opportunities, including climate change. We believe that these factors are dynamic and emerging, and we consider them through the investment life cycle when they are material to the investment.

The size of the public equity market means it has an important role to play delivering impact at scale, but investors need to follow some core principles to ensure impact is really being achieved. We explain how this works.

For the past century business and investing has been dominated by a single-minded focus on profit generation. This has created massive environmental and social deficits and placed the planet on a treacherous trajectory. We can’t change the past, but through our latest Big Book of Sustainable Investing, we hope to demonstrate how sustainable investing (SI) […]

Our society, economies and financial systems are embedded in nature, not external to it. The prosperity and resilience of our societies and economies depend on the health and resilience of nature and its biodiversity. Healthy ecosystems are a prerequisite for the sustained flow of ecosystem services that communities need to survive and flourish, and that […]

We have left it too late to tackle climate change incrementally. We now require a dramatic acceleration of progress through transformational change across society and the global economy. The pensions industry has an undeniably important role to play in supporting the journey to net zero, not least through investing for a world that its beneficiaries […]

We evaluate the cost of four different scenarios for the global energy system from 2020 to 2070 using an empirically validated technology forecasting method based on an expansive historical dataset. A no-transition scenario that maintains the current energy mix provides a benchmark. Under a rapid transition scenario, solar photovoltaics and wind are quickly deployed using […]

This new report represents a major effort to demonstrate the value of new economic modelling to policy questions relevant to the low-carbon transition. Through 15 real-world, global, regional and national case studies, developed in partnership with policy stakeholders, the report demonstrates how new economic modelling approaches can deliver crucial insights for decision makers. It also […]

An updated proposal to help corporate boards and management develop, and investors assess, transparent and credible plans to achieve net-zero goals and create long-term value.

As long-time producers and users of economic forecasts, we are well aware of their fallibility. But attempting to forecast the implications of addressing climate change takes this to a whole new level. The degree of volatility and uncertainty surrounding the dynamics of the physical climate and its interaction with the political, economic, technological and behavioural […]

We reflect on our first year as an Impact Principles signatory.

Responsible investment (‘RI’) is fundamental to our investment approach. As a long-term investor and representative of asset owners, we are committed to the effective and active stewardship of the companies in which we invest, regardless of asset class.

Grey to Green: The Opportunity for Private Equity to Decarbonize Assets explores the barriers preventing additional private investments in high-carbon assets and the solutions that will overcome them. In the race to achieve net-zero targets, allocating capital to sectors that need to evolve into sustainable operations with the goal of reducing their emissions over time […]

Decisions about how and when to decarbonize the global energy system are highly influenced by estimates of the likely cost. Most energy-economy models have produced energy transition scenarios that overestimate costs due to underestimating renewable energy cost improvements and deployment rates. This paper generates probabilistic cost forecasts of energy technologies using a method that has […]

It’s time to shift our focus from a top-down scientific view of what needs to be done across sectors to a bottom-up view of what individual businesses can actually do today to abate emissions.

As of 2023, the financial system is woefully misaligned with the world’s climate goals. Six times the current annual level of investment in non-fossil fuel investments is needed between 2023 and 2030 to stay on a 1.5ºC warming pathway. The ratio of clean-energy lending and equity underwriting by banks relative to fossil fuels needs to […]