28 JANUARY 2022<\/a> : 1H7TJ<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n IOT: POWERING THE DIGITAL ECONOMY<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n PUBLISHED TUE, JAN 25 20225:10 AM EST<\/p>\n\n\n\n Anmar Frangoul<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n SHARE<\/p>\n\n\n\n Share Article via FacebookShare Article via TwitterShare Article via LinkedInShare Article via EmailKEY POINTS<\/p>\n\n\n\n In this article<\/p>\n\n\n\n Investors are \u2018looking carefully\u2019 at climate change: Sancroft\u2019s Judy Kuszewski<\/p>\n\n\n\n From high-profile figures such as Greta Thunberg to events like the COP26 summit, discussions about sustainability, the environment and climate change are perhaps more visible than ever before.<\/p>\n\n\n\n As the 2020s progress, corporations around the world are attempting to burnish their sustainability credentials by announcing net-zero goals and plans to reduce the environmental footprint of their operations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n While there is a significant degree of skepticism about many of the sustainability-related claims businesses make \u2014 concrete details are often hard to come by and the dates for achieving these targets are sometimes decades away \u2014 the fact they are making them at all is instructive, pointing to a shift in the mindset of some investors. <\/p>\n\n\n\n During a recent panel discussion chaired by CNBC\u2019s Steve Sedgwick, Judy Kuszewski, chief executive of sustainability consultancy Sancroft International, spoke to the above point.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cOne of the most exciting and most, perhaps, unexpected developments that we\u2019ve seen in the last couple of years or so is that climate change is actually a topic that investors are looking carefully at right now,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n They were \u201creally asking questions about the company\u2019s strategy and their future fitness to \u2026 deal with the inevitable changes that are ahead of us,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Examples of investors focusing on topics such as climate change, sustainability and the environment include Follow This, a Dutch organization which describes itself as \u201ca group of responsible shareholders in oil and gas companies.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n Slowly but surely, the effect of such groups is starting to be felt in boardrooms. In May 2021, for example, Chevron<\/a> shareholders voted in favor of a proposal put forward by Follow This to \u201cencourage\u201d the oil giant to cut its emissions. <\/p>\n\n\n\n The same month also saw ConocoPhillips<\/a> and Phillips66<\/a> shareholders vote for similar proposals advanced by Follow This.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Truist cuts solar stock targets after \u2018painful start\u2019 to 2022<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n JPMorgan says hydrogen use is set to boom and picks its top stocks to cash in<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Another member of CNBC\u2019s panel, Jos Delbeke, sought to highlight how attitudes were changing in the wake of 2015\u2032s Paris Agreement, a landmark deal which seeks to \u201climit global warming to well below 2, preferably to 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared to pre-industrial levels.\u201d There was a lot of work ahead of us, said Delbeke, who also holds the position of European Investment Bank climate chair at the European University Institute.<\/p>\n\n\n\n He went on to note how the general public was \u201cvery wary of greenwashing,\u201d a term which environmental organization Greenpeace UK calls a \u201cPR tactic\u201d used \u201cto make a company or product appear environmentally friendly without meaningfully reducing its environmental impact.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n For Delbeke, capitalizing on the moment was key. \u201cWe have this trust that is now being expressed towards the public and the private sector,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n This needed to be nurtured, he argued, going on to acknowledge that greenwashing might provoke a backlash. \u201cI think that is a lot of what is at stake here: that companies going for net-zero can \u2026 demonstrate, in a very credible manner, that they are<\/em> going to net-zero,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n Referencing the European Union\u2019s emissions trading system<\/a>, Delbeke said that \u201cthe monitoring and the compliance was terribly important to create \u2026 trust in the system.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cIt\u2019s good to have a concept of putting a price on carbon but \u2026 \u2018is it credibly done?\u2019 is what the general public is asking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n When it comes to standards related to sustainability, consistency is key<\/p>\n\n\n\n During the discussion, Sancroft International\u2019s Kuszewski hammered home the point that while uniform standards for measuring companies\u2019 performance existed, they weren\u2019t being consistently applied.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere isn\u2019t really a need for new standards,\u201d she said. \u201cThere\u2019s a need for consistent application of the standards that we already have, whether those are around sustainability reporting and indicators \u2014 far and away the most used one is the Global Reporting Initiative, which is used by 10,000 companies annually.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n The GRI, Kuszewski explained, incorporated the Greenhouse Gas Protocol, which in turn defined Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. These refer to direct greenhouse gas emissions; GHG related to the production of electricity bought and used by a firm; and all remaining \u201cindirect\u201d GHG.<\/p>\n\n\n\n \u201cThere is good agreement across the landscape about what the \u2026 frameworks and the measurement protocols should be,\u201d Kuszewski said. \u201cIt\u2019s about the application.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" 28 JANUARY 2022 : 1H7TJ IOT: POWERING THE DIGITAL ECONOMY Source >>> PUBLISHED TUE, JAN 25 20225:10 … Source >>><\/a><\/h3>\n\n\n\n
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Delbeke, who is the former director-general for climate action at the European Commission, said: \u201cI think that the pressure that originally came towards the public authorities has now, since Paris, gradually widened \u2026 to involve the private sector and in particular \u2026 dealing with risk and looking for opportunities.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n