LONDON, Nov 23 (Reuters) - Market regulators set out a global framework on Tuesday to police environment, social and governance (ESG) investment ratings and help combat 'greenwashing' in the fast-growing, multi-trillion dollar sector.Regulators are cracking down on many aspects of ESG investing with basic rules to make it easier to punish greenwashing, where the environmental credentials of an investment or activity are overstated, in a cross-border sector where investment is "exploding".
The Monetary Authority of Singapore (MAS), the central bank and financial regulator of Singapore, announced today an initiative to partner with financial technology providers and finance industry participants on the development of ESG and sustainable-focused data platforms.The new initiative is being conducted under MAS’ Project Greenprint, which the authority launched last year in order to help mobilize capital for green and sustainable finance by harnessing technology and data and create a more transparent, trusted and efficient ESG ecosystem. MAS aims to develop four interoperable platforms under Project Greenprint, targeting areas including ESG disclosure, data orchestration, registration and interconnection.
Climate Disclosure Standards Board, Value Reporting Foundation consolidated into IFRSMarking a major step towards the establishment of unified and globally consistent sustainability-related corporate disclosure, the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB) was officially launched by the International Financial Reporting Standards Foundation (IFRS) today at the COP26 climate conference.The movement to establish the ISSB was initiated in October 2020, with the launch of a consultation process by the IFRS Foundation, seeking input on the potential formation of a global sustainability reporting standards board, and on the Foundation’s own place in that process. After receiving positive responses to its consultation paper, the IFRS launched a Technical Readiness Work...
The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi), one of the key organizations focused on aligning corporate environmental sustainability action with the global goals of addressing and limiting climate change, announced the initiation of a process to develop a net zero standard for financial institutions, with the publication of Net-Zero Foundations for Financial Institutions Draft for public consultation.Founded in 2015, SBTi was formed as a collaboration between CDP, World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC), with the goal to establish science-based environmental target setting as a standard corporate practice.
Cloud-based ESG software solutions provider Benchmark Digital (formerly Gensuite) announced the launch of ESG Director, a new digital platform aimed at enabling organizations to meet emerging sustainability reporting obligations and to manage and track ESG performance.The new platform is being launched as companies face growing pressure from regulators, investors and other stakeholders to improve their sustainability profiles and amid increasing demands for ESG-related disclosure. Mandatory ESG disclosure requirements are becoming increasingly common in jurisdictions around the world, and investor surveys consistently find that sustainability reporting is a key focus area for investors.