This month includes news from New SSE green finance work, BMV, Deutsche Börse, LGX, NZX and Santiago and more. Monthly news highlights are compiled by the SSE to give an overview of the capital markets sustainability news from that month.

 

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SSE INITIATIVE NEWS

Green finance work-stream launch May 4, 2017 The United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative launched its Green Finance work-stream with a meeting of advisory group members in Geneva. Co-chaired by the Luxembourg Stock Exchange’s Secretary General, Maurice Bauer, and Member of the Executive Committee, Julie Becker, the advisory group aims to launch a new voluntary green finance toolkit at the COP23 climate summit in Bonn, Germany this November. NZX joins the SSE April 18, 2017 The New Zealand stock exchange, NZX Limited, announced that it is joining the United Nations Sustainable Stock Exchanges (SSE) initiative. This comes alongside a commitment to substantively update the NZX’s Corporate Governance Code.  

WEBINARS AND EVENTS

Recording available: Nasdaq Nordic introduces ESG reporting guide On May 19, Nasdaq hosted a webinar conversation about Nasdaq Nordics’ recently released ESG Reporting Guide. To listen to a recording of the webinar, click here.  

GENERAL NEWS

Mexican stock exchange: Investors sign statement in favor of green bonds May 31, 2017 Fifty-seven institutional investors representing approximately 214 billion USD in assets were convened by the Mexican stock exchange (Grupo BMV), signing a statement in favor of financing green bonds in Mexico. The document signed acknowledges the risk of climate change, and calls for government and financial authorities to consider public policies, regulation, risk mitigation and mechanisms that support the development of the local green market. Santiago exchange releases guide to responsible investment in collaboration with EY May 29, 2017 The development of this guide arose as part of the Chilean stock exchange’s commitment to promote sustainability in capital markets. This guide aims to support and guide investors in understanding responsible investment, identifying ESG risks and opportunities and communicating the principles and potential of responsible investment. Deutsche Börse launches “Accelerating Sustainable Finance” initiative May 23, 2017 The Sustainable Finance Initiative’s origin lies in the conviction that current global challenges, such as climate change and the progress of digitization, require innovative and solution-oriented action. Crucial to such action is the transformation to a more sustainable financial system worldwide. The participants in the Frankfurt Sustainable Finance Initiative aim to actively work together on the basis of their own core business, towards implementing sustainable milestones, such as the United Nation’s Sustainable Development Goals, the Paris Agreement on climate and the green finance focus of the German G20 presidency. PRI announces blueprint for sustainable investing May 22, 2017 The PRI has set out its priorities for the next ten years in its blueprint for responsible investment. The organization’s ambitious agenda over the next decade aims to address the barriers around responsible investment that still exist by addressing sustainability challenges such as climate change. The Blueprint also includes measures to strengthen signatory accountability and build a more sustainable financial system. The Blueprint lays out three areas of impact on which it will focus:

• lead responsible investors in their pursuit of long-term value and enhance alignment throughout the investment chain;
• address unsustainable aspects of the markets in which investors operate;
• enable signatories to improve the real world – now and in the future – by encouraging investments that contribute to prosperous and inclusive societies for current and future generations.

CBI & LGX release joint paper on stock exchanges and green bonds growth May 19, 2017 The Climate Bonds Initiative (CBI) in collaboration with Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX) released “The role of exchanges in accelerating the growth of the green bond market,” outlining steps for stock exchanges to boost green finance. A number of stock exchanges were consulted during the preparation of the paper including the London Stock Exchange, Nigerian Stock Exchange & Borsa Italiana. Nearly 300 global investors urge G7 to stand by Paris Agreement and drive a swift implementation May 8, 2017 More than 280 long-term institutional investors representing US$17+ trillion in assets have written to G7 heads of state urging governments to stand by their commitments to the Paris Agreement at their upcoming Summit in Taormina, Italy on 26-27 May. Click here to read the full global investor letter to G7 and G20 governments. Click here to read the full briefing paper for G7 and G20.  

ESG INDICES AND PRODUCTS

Luxembourg Stock Exchange extends green universe to SRI May 18, 2017 The Luxembourg Green Exchange (LGX) is opening a segment dedicated to sustainable and social projects bonds, a sector valued at over US$23trn, as it looks to broaden the universe of socially responsible instruments listed on its platform. While green bonds initially spearheaded environmentally responsible investments, the asset class has broadened out in recent times to so-called SRI bonds that finance various projects, ranging from education, healthcare and social cohesion. “Since the launch of LGX, there’s been a push, from both investors and issuers side, to expand the green bond market from simply a climate remit to other aspects of socially responsible investment,” said Robert Scharfe, CEO of the Luxembourg Stock Exchange (LuxSE).