The Responsible Investor Podcast

With 2050 on the horizon and a challenging political and economic environment for companies looking to hit net zero, engagement on climate change is more important than ever.

As part of its new climate and investors focus, Responsible Investor has published a series of articles looking at the future of climate engagement ranging from how climate collaborations are evolving to engagement with hard to abate sectors and how investors ...

Climate engagement has been on investors’ agendas for more than a decade. So what progress has been made in that time? What have we learned about what works and what doesn’t? And, crucially, what does that mean for how we move forward?

To explore these questions, our editor Lucy Fitzgeorge-Parker sat down with sustainability and stewardship veteran Colin Melvin of Arkadiko Partners. As co-author of the Principles for Responsible In...

Over the course of his three years as comptroller of New York City, Brad Lander has guided the city's pension systems in achieving their climate targets, divesting from fossil fuel companies and seeing significant success with shareholder resolutions on a range of topics.

Lander, whose term will end in January, joins The Responsible Investor Podcast to discuss his proudest achievements in office, the future of shareholder proposals...

At $96 billion in assets, the Oregon Public Employees Retirement System is one of the largest public pension funds in the US. As of this year, it is also one of the few to have been handed a legal mandate to manage climate risk in its investments.

In this episode, Oregon state treasurer Elizabeth Steiner discusses the state's new legislation on climate investment, the challenges and trade-offs of steering a giant portfolio towards ...

After a turbulent first half of the year following the release of the EU's sustainability Omnibus, Brussels is back in session and gearing up for a busy autumn of discussions and decisions on how to simplify a number of sustainable finance regulations.

Formal negotiations between EU lawmakers are expected to kick off shortly on proposed changes to the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) and Corporate Sustainability ...

In this episode, we are joined by Amy O'Brien, global head of responsible investing at asset manager Nuveen.

She joins us to discuss her new book, A Field Guide to Responsible Investing: Asset Management in the Age of Polycrises. Drawing from her three decades of experience in responsible investment, the book "takes readers on a journey of the evolution of responsible investing, how it works today, why it’s integral to investment c...

Increasing geopolitical uncertainty and the USA's decreasing reliability as an ally has triggered a massive boost in global defence spending.

As investment managers and asset owners look to capitalise on the new opportunities, this has led to a wave of fund launches and changes to exclusions policies across the market.

In this episode, senior reporter Dominic Webb talks to deputy editor Elza Holmstedt Pell about the latest developm...

The past six months have been dominated by EU sustainable finance regulatory developments, following the bloc's push to simplify and roll back several of the rules issued under its 2019 Green Deal.

On this episode, we are joined by Helena Viñes Fiestas, commissioner at Spanish regulator CNMV and former chair of the EU Platform on Sustainable Finance.

Having worked in sustainable finance for more than a decade, she talks us through ...

The UK's fund labelling regime under the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements and the European Securities and Markets Authority's new guidelines on the use of ESG terms in fund names have have sparked a wave of renaming, mergers, closures and portfolio reshuffling.

On this episode, we are joined by Hortense Bioy, head of sustainable investing research at Morningstar Sustainalytics. Bioy walks us through the most recent regulatory...

ESG shareholder proposals have come under increasing scrutiny over the past few years, with debates focusing around their alleged prescriptiveness and quality. Support for these proposals also fell sharply from the record levels reached in 2021 before stabilising last year at around 20 percent.

Last year also saw ExxonMobil sue Dutch NGO Follow This and Arjuna Capital over a climate resolution. The lawsuit ended with the case being...

It is now a matter of broad consensus that the world will overshoot its 1.5C temperature goal, but that does not mean there is nothing to be optimistic about, according to climate finance expert Jakob Thomä.

He should know a thing or two about this topic. Thomä led the development of the first climate scenario analysis tool at 2 Degrees Investing Initiative and currently leads a think tank which makes predictions about future clima...

It’s been just over one month since the European Commission announced its much-anticipated sustainability Omnibus plans, which would heavily water down the Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD), Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) and EU Taxonomy.

The EU executive wants the changes to be approved and implemented at a very quick pace, and much has already happened since the February announcement.

I...

In recent years, corporates have increasingly been trying to work out how to approach nature reporting.

How has the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) aided firms in their efforts? And what are the initial insights from Corporate Sustainability Reporting Directive (CSRD) reports regarding how corporates are approaching ESRS E4 Biodiversity and ecosystems?

Stephanie Hime, founder and managing director of sustai...

Asset owners across the UK, Europe and US are sharpening their focus on asset manager stewardship, and an increasing regulatory focus on stewardship outcomes and transition-focused products is leading investors to think harder about how they can demonstrate that their own engagements are having an effect.

Jennifer Walmsley, associate director for corporate engagement at the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC), h...

Global investments in renewable energy reached a new record of more than $700 billion in 2024, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. But this year has brought uncertainty and challenges on many fronts, perhaps most notably from the new Trump administration.

The good news is that uncertainty is something the sector is used to, says Jérôme Guillet, co-founder of renewables advisory firm Snow, and there are many bright spots.

At ...

Net-zero as a concept is under pressure, and for investors to assess the best path forward, it is crucial to understand how companies and other holdings are managing this – and what efforts they are undertaking to navigate the transition.

This is what the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) has helped investors with since its inception in 2017. Carmen Nuzzo, the executive director of TPI’s academic centre, tells The Responsible Inv...

With big asset managers rushing to exit climate initiatives and ESG opponents taking centre stage in the US, responsible investment is under scrutiny as never before. What does this mean for up-and-coming asset owners with sustainability ambitions?

This is a key question for Dan Mikulskis, CIO of People's Partnership, one of the fastest-growing workplace pension providers in the UK. In this episode, he talks to RI editor Lucy Fitzg...

Three years ago, in the run-up to COP26, financial institutions rushed to sign up to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ).

A renewed focus on fiduciary duty, however, combined with concerns about the real-world impact of reducing portfolio emissions, is now prompting asset managers to rethink strategies and methodologies for net zero.

Daisy Streatfeild has seen the issue from both sides of the fence. In 2021, she hel...

After an autumn of devastating floods in Florida, Spain and southern Italy, the need to protect populations from the impacts of climate change has shot up the agenda for policymakers.

Nature can play a crucial role in climate adaptation, from protecting coastlines from rising sea levels to slowing or reducing water run-off upstream of urban centres.

In this episode, veteran investor Eoin Murray talks to RI editor Lucy Fitzgeorge-Pa...