Ethos Foundation, the organisation backed by Swiss pension funds, is recommending shareholders vote in favour of a resolution to improve transparency on coal investments and production by commodity company Glencore.
Shareholders are pushing Glencore to clarify how its production and investments in coal are compatible with the goal of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming to 1.5°C, and with its own climate commitments.
The Foundation will put forward the resolution with a coalition of international investors at the company’s annual general meeting taking place on 26 May.
The climate resolution was originally filed at the end of last year by a coalition of institutional investors led by the Australasian Centre for Corporate Responsibility (ACCR) and ShareAction and representing over $2trn in assets under management.
Glencore has a the target for reducing its net greenhouse gas emissions to zero by 2050, but, according to the coalition of investors supporting the shareholder resolution, there is currently insufficient evidence to demonstrate that Glencore’s planned developments and investments in the coal sector will bring the company’s emissions in line with the Paris Agreement targets.
According to Ethos, Glencore’s climate strategy is “insufficient”, it said in a statement, adding that the company is not relying on scientifically validated reduction targets and has currently a high exposure to fossil fuels.
VBV Vorsorgekasse signs Finance for Biodiversity Pledge
VBV Vorsorgekasse, the severance payment fund of Austrian VBV Group, has signed the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge. Some 140 financial institutions from 23 countries with assets worth more than €19.2trn have so far signed the pledge.
The fund has also joined the Finance for Biodiversity Foundation, a non-profit organisation launched by 26 financial institutions in 2020 as part of the United Nations General Assembly Biodiversity Summit.
Andreas Zakostelsky, general director of the VBV Group and chief executive officer of VBV Vorsorgekasse, said: “As part of the European Green Deal, the EU has set itself the goal of putting biodiversity on the path to recovery by 2030. We support this goal and have therefore taken an important step towards it by signing the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge.”
BaFin fines Nomura Financial Products
The German financial supervisory authority, BaFin, has imposed a fine of €230,000 to Nomura Financial Products for exceeding the upper limit for large loans.
The upper limit for such large loans is usually €150m, or 25% percent of the core capital of the bank. The regulator has also ordered Nomura Financial Products Europe to hold more equity.
Nomura Financial Products Europe operates as a bank providing financial services in trading bond and equity products, including derivatives, investment banking services, corporate finance and private equity.
The financial supervisory authority had instructed Nomura to review its business organisation in March, with a special audit process revealing that the company did not meet the legal requirements of the German Banking Act (KWG), it said in a statement.
The trading business, the risk control and risk monitoring processes, and the outsourcing management business were particularly impacted by the review.
In April, BaFin also ordered Nomura Financial Products Europe to meet additional capital requirements. This decision has been effective since 12 May.
The latest digital edition of IPE’s magazine is now available
No comments yet