Mans Carlsson-Sweeny's Page

Fund managers have a fiduciary responsibility to take into account all major long-term financial risks to an investment portfolio. Understanding carbon risk should be high on the fund managers’ agenda; if significant carbon costs are incurred by companies in the portfolios this can dramatically alter the investment returns. However, by being proactive, fund managers can turn risk into opportunity.

In the US a recently published study showed that the companies in the S&P 500 were resp… Continue

The United Nations Principles of Responsible Investments (“UN PRI”) recently published the results of its annual survey showing a number of positive developments. However, some signatories have failed to live up to their reporting duties and might be de-listed.

Is this a one-off event or is the PRI getting tougher? The UN PRI, which is an investor partnership between the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative and the UN Global Impact, has certainly received a fair bit of… Continue

More than half of the funds under management in Australia are managed by organisations who have committed to the United Nations Principles for Responsible Investment. While investment professionals working for these organisations are gradually acquiring the skills and expertise they need to conduct ESG analysis, they have not had access to any formal ongoing educational programs. As a result, responsible investment standards and practices vary significantly and there is no set definition of w… Continue

The WTO’s report on international trade and the environment
The report “Trade and Environment” was published by the WTO and UNEP on 26 June 2009 and investigates the intersections between climate change and trade from four different perspectives: the science of climate change; economics; multilateral efforts to tackle climate change; and national climate change policies and their effect on trade.

Both Executive Director Achim Steiner and the WTO’s Director General Pascal Lamy urge the in… Continue

Globetrotting crustaceans
A while ago I heard of a Scandinavian company that caught prawns in the Arctic Ocean, sent them to China where they were peeled and then sent back to Scandinavia where they eventually (after having been transported around a number of times) ended up on a plate somewhere. Unwittingly these prawns had been major CO2 culprits, not the least as they required frozen transport. This is just one example of trade routes that have opened up due to globalisation. While the… Continue