Impact Investing & ESG
The 2017 Best for the World Funds
Best for the World Funds have made a deep commitment to measuring impact using a holistic, third-party standard: The GIIRS Impact Rating system, developed by B Lab.
Impact Investing and SOCAP Turn 10
There’s a birthday party this week in San Francisco. SOCAP (Social Capital Markets) and impact investing are both celebrating their tenth birthday.
The Impact Investment Strategies that Helped Make These Funds among the ‘Best for the World’
B Lab’s annual list of top-ranked impact funds includes some you may not have heard of — yet.
ESG Funds Outperform Active Rivals
For the second straight year, ESG funds outperformed conventional active funds in Barron’s annual survey of sustainable funds in Morningstar’s database.
Goldman Says ESG Investing Has Gone Mainstream
Goldman Sachs Asset Management officials say ESG investing, along with impact investing, are no longer specialty niches, but are taking a prominent place on the investment menu.
United States & Europe
US Withdrawal from Paris Agreement will Impact Developing Nations, Says ECA’s Murombedzi
The withdrawal of the US from Paris Agreement will have massive implications on US support to the financing of climate actions in the developing world, says James Murombedzi, Coordinator of the African Climate Policy Centre at the Economic Commission for Africa.
House Approves $36.5 Billion Hurricane and Wildfire Aid Package
The House, dismissing concern for the rising cost, approved a $36.5 billion aid package on Thursday that would provide hurricane and wildfire relief funding while bailing out the financially troubled National Flood Insurance Program.
IMF Tells Rich Nations that Greater Urgency Needed on Climate Change
The IMF warned the world’s richest nations to have a greater sense of urgency about climate change, a day after Tony Abbott delivered a bizarre speech claiming climate change was “probably doing good”.
The European Council has emphasized the importance of making progress on the Paris Agreement’s “transformational objective” of making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low-carbon and climate-resilient development.
Developing Economies
Global Unemployment Passes 200 million in 2017, UN Labor Agency Reports
More than 200 million people are out of work around the world – an increase of 3.4 million since last year, the United Nations labor agency said Monday, calling for policies that can recharge “sluggish” growth of small and medium-sized businesses.
Investor Uncertainty Looms Over Sustainable Development Goals
A changing investment policy landscape has investors feeling uncertain at a stage when the world’s most vulnerable economies desperately need foreign cash, UNCTAD Secretary-General Mukhisa Kituyi has told an international meeting on investment convening this week in Geneva.
Economic Diversification Even More Crucial as the Fight against Climate Change Revs Up
The need for developing countries to diversify the portfolio of goods and services they produce has become even more pressing as governments move to act on the promises of the Paris climate agreement, UNCTAD Deputy Secretary-General Isabelle Durant has told an international meeting in Geneva.
Colombia Peace Deal Cannot be Modified for 12 Years, Court Rules
Colombia’s next three governments must comply with a 2016 peace deal signed with the Marxist FARC rebel group, the Constitutional Court said in a ruling late on Wednesday, shielding the accord from potential changes should the opposition win next year’s elections.
Liberia Goes to Polls to Find Successor to Africa’s First Female President
Candidates to replace Ellen Johnson Sirleaf include Prince Johnson, a former rebel leader who ordered the killing of the ex-president.
Zambia Happy with Africa’s 9 Trillion Dollars Expenditure Towards Infrastructure Development
Zambia has expressed happiness with Africa’s annual expenditure of nine trillion dollars towards infrastructure development Zambia’s High Commissioner to South Africa Mr. Emmanuel Mwamba.
China’s Secret Aid Empire Uncovered
Not very long ago, China was a foreign aid recipient. Now, it rivals the United States as one of the world’s largest donors, through traditional development aid or through financial loans.
Global Firms Join to Bet on Indonesia as Next Start-Up Frontier
Big-name investors including Expedia and Alibaba are pumping billions of dollars into Indonesian tech start-ups in a bid to capitalize on the country´s burgeoning digital economy and potential as Southeast Asia´s largest online market.