ISS Launches Sustainable Development Goals Impact Ratings On May 5, 2020, the responsible investment arm of Institutional Shareholder Services Inc. (ISS) announced a new Sustainable Development Goals (SDG) Impact Rating service. 195 The service will measure an issuer’s impact with reference to the United Nations’ SDG framework in order to identify how the issuer is managing the negative externalities in its operations across the entire value chain, as well as how the company is capitalizing on existing and emerging opportunities to contribute toward the achievement of the SDGs. The new rating is designed to support investors seeking to align their investments with the SDGs, to measure and report on the alignment of their portfolios to the SDGs and to develop their own investment solutions based on specific themes such as biodiversity, climate, gender equality and health. The ISS rating system is the first of two new solutions ISS is launching in 2020 to support SDG investment strategies. The second, a new SDG Impact Index, is expected to be launched by ISS later this year. ISS has stated that the new services will initially be available in respect of over 6,500 issuers, with that coverage expected to expand in the future.
CERES CALLS ON FINANCIAL REGULATORS TO TACKLE CLIMATE CHANGE On July 1, 2020, an association of over 70 investors, businesses, former regulators and politicians sent a letter to the U.S. Federal Reserve chairman and several other financial regulatory agencies, emphasizing the significant systematic threat posed by climate change to financial markets, and the economy more generally. The letter called on financial regulators to consider the recommendations made in a recent report by the Ceres Accelerator for Sustainable Capital Markets, which proposed a requirement for financial institutions to conduct climate stress tests and to explore potential means to address climate risks through monetary policy. 196
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Governance Insights 2020
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