Ahren Lester

Articles by Ahren Lester

  • Green bond comment: September 2020: Sustainable loans market should learn a transparency lesson from bonds

    02 September 2020

    The sustainable loan market is emulating the labelled bond market in terms of its rapid growth. But the same cannot be said of the level of information it offers, laments Ahren Lester

  • Water webinar: With risk recognition rising, it's time to rethink resilience and adaptation

    01 September 2020

    Water risk is beginning to receive greater attention, but it is time to press companies to disclose as well as consider the future opportunities. Ahren Lester reports.

  • Taiwan's TDCC launch ESG ratings dashboard

    28 August 2020

    The Taiwan Depository and Clearing Corporation (TDCC) has launched a dashboard to help issuers and investors access environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings for Taiwanese firms, using data from four partnered ESG data providers.

  • Water risk is accelerating cases of 'drying' or 'drowning' assets

    27 August 2020

    The announcement of 'stranded' assets created by rising water risk is growing, environmental not-for-profit CDP says, with examples of these 'drying' or 'drowning' assets accumulating rapidly, but awareness and disclosure remains lamentably low.

  • Germany launches innovative 'twin' bond green issuance programme

    25 August 2020

    Germany has launched its first green bond framework which will see it issue green sovereign bonds every year alongside conventional bonds through an innovative "twin bonds" concept, in what has been described as a "major milestone" for sustainable finance in Europe's largest economy.

  • Healthcare impact investing complements our day-to-day work, says MSD

    25 August 2020

    Impact investment by healthcare companies strengthens the impact their commercial operations deliver every day, MSD says, by helping them reach underserved populations. Ahren Lester reports.

  • 'Blue bonds' could finance fish stock recovery

    24 August 2020

    Planet Tracker has proposed a 'blue bond' could be used to finance the replenishment of fish stocks by subsidising fishing firms to reduce capacity to allow population recovery.

  • Storebrand excludes 27 firms as it tightens climate policy

    24 August 2020

    Norwegian asset manager Storebrand has tightened its climate policy significantly, which will see it exclude 27 firms including oil majors Chevron and ExxonMobil, miner Rio Tinto and chemicals giant BASF.

  • Central banks should step up to face environmental breakdown risk in finance

    21 August 2020

    Market-fixing approaches such as the nascent Task Force for Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) are "unsuitable" for managing the risks posed by environmental breakdown, an academic paper has argued, instead proposing that central banks and financial regulators should introduce strict industry-wide exclusionary criteria.

  • £32bn Pension Protection Fund hails ESG progress

    21 August 2020

    The UK Pension Protection Fund (PPF) has hailed its environmental, social and governance (ESG) progress in its first responsible investment report, including building pressure on external managers and increasing engagement, as it looks to push harder for disclosure improvements.