The latest edition of the UBS Investor Watch report, 'Return on Values', the largest recurring global study of high net worth (HNWIs) in the world, presents a diverse picture of attitudes and approaches on sustainable investment.

Europe’s green bond market has seen a growth of 20 per cent, even the wider debt-issuance market has dried. The green bond sales have now topped € 40bn, contrasting to a 10 per cent slowdown seen in the overall market, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. With green bonds notching up $100bn globally, assets under management at green funds in Europe have doubled since 2013.

Willis Towers Watson has appointed Hermes Investment Management’s stewardship and engagement team, Hermes EOS, to provide voting and engagement services on the £3bn actively managed assets in the Global Equity Focus Fund.

Charity Bank has been doing its bit to raise the profile of ethical banking and encouraging charities and social enterprises (who are estimated to hold over £100bn of collective investment assets) to switch to providers such as themselves with the launch of the tenth annual Follow the Money campaign.

The Investor Agenda has been launched at the Global Climate Action Summit in San Francisco bringing together 392 investors with $32tr in assets collectively under management.

Investors managing over $5.6tr in assets have now joined a coalition of large food companies in signing a statement in support halting forest conversion in the Cerrado ecoregion of Brazil. Signed at the Global Climate Action Summit, the statement calls for companies in the soy and meat value chain to adopt effective policies to stop further deforestation of the region.

A key recommendation of the Green Finance Taskforce, the new Green Finance Institute was announced by the Chancellor in June 2018 as part of the vision for the future of the UK’s world-leading financial services sector.

A report from US-based Arabella Advisors reveals that nearly 1,000 institutional investors, with $6.24tr in assets, have committed to divest from fossil fuels, a rise from $52bn only four years ago.

A number of reinsurers’ policy loopholes are “keeping the coal industry afloat”, despite having the power to end coal support and support global climate action, Unfriend Coal has argued.

Bill de Blasio, mayor of New York City and Sadiq Khan, mayor of London has issued a joint statement calling for a change in attitudes to the fossil fuel industry. Ahead of the Global Climate Action Summit in California, both mayors are calling for other cities globally to join them in divesting their assets from fossil fuel companies.

This year, for the third year in a row, and with an increased share of the vote, the 2018 Barometer has placed GSK and Save the Children as the most admired partnership, with second place going to the Boots UK and Macmillan Cancer Support partnership and entering the top three for the first time was a consortium collaboration between Tesco, British Heart Foundation, Cancer Research UK and Diabetes UK.

A recent study by UN Environment, The State of Knowledge of Crimes that have Serious Impacts on the Environment, lists the five most prevalent environmental crimes and calls for closer work with the private sector on the role and implications of environmental crimes for sustainable development.

The City of London Corporation’s charitable funder, City Bridge Trust, and UBS have awarded a total of £429,240 to 12 London organisations through their fifth round of the social investment programme Stepping Stones. This brings the total awards given to £3,231,340 to 77 organisations since the launch of the fund in 2015.

For the second time in a row, Allianz has headed up the Dow Jones Sustainability Index (DJSI) as most sustainable insurer with a rating with 85 out of 100 points. In addition it has claimed the position as the best organisation in its sector for climate strategy, human capital development, information security, tax strategy and financial inclusion.

SAP has announced plans to work with partners on a ‘plastics cloud’, to collect existing and live data from across the plastics supply chain in order to help create solutions for waste reduction. Using machine learning to compile information the systems can be used to forecast trends in plastics purchasing and recycling, enabling services to meet demand. Data could also be shared with consumers to help them understand their own plastics impact.

A new European environmental directive that treats wood harvested directly for bioenergy use as a carbon-free fuel could ironically lead to greatly increase carbon in the air, and set a dangerous global example.

Wind energy in Europe is on track for solid growth over the next five years, growing at an average 17 GW a year up to 2022 to reach 258 GW of installed capacity. Most of the new installations will be onshore wind, accounting for 70.4 GW compared to 16.5 GW of new offshore wind.

The removal of greenhouse gases could render the UK carbon neutral by 2050, according to a joint report by the Royal Academy of Engineering and Royal Society.

Financial think-tank Carbon Tracker has carried out an analysis on energy transition and its impact on the financial markets, concluding that the peak in fossil fuel demand will have a dramatic impact in the 2020s.

Sony, RBS, WeWork and McKinsey have joined global initiative RE100. The initiative, by the Climate Group in partnership with CDP, now has more than 100 businesses committed to 100 per cent renewable electricity.

The VW emissions scandal continues to send reverberations throughout the industry. Recently the company was sued by shareholders for the way in which it responded to US-led information that it was cheating test devices. Now the European Commission has said it is to investigate whether VW and other German carmakers BMW and Mercedes Benz colluded in stalling development of emissions reduction technology.

Lego is the most reputable company in Europe according to the Reputation Institute’s 2018 EU5 RepTrak report, based on more than ratings from 87,000 individuals across Germany, France, Spain, Italy, and the UK.

Oil majors ExxonMobil and Chevron will join the Oil and Gas Climate Initiative (OGCI), a voluntary initiative representing 13 of the world’s largest oil and gas producers working collaboratively toward solutions to mitigate the risks of climate change.

The Government has published changes to how pension trustees should consider environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors in investment decisions. Under the new rules, the majority of trustees will be required to explain their approach to ESG factors, stewardship of investments, and ethical issues. Many will also have to report to scheme members on the implementation of the policies.

Lehman Brothers, at the time the fourth largest investment bank in the US, admitted bankruptcy on 15 September 2008, becoming the defining moment that financial crisis tipped into chaos. Few will need reminding of either the event itself or the consequences.

The Evening Standard and Independent newspapers are working in partnership with War Child to raise awareness of education and mental health provisions for children affected by conflict.

Volkswagen has become the first carmaker to face trial over the emissions scandal; with investors seeking €9.2bn in damages over the company’s falsifying emissions data.

A report released today by the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI) has listed allegations against some of the world’s largest technology companies with evidence of systemic governance failures.

The Business & Human Rights Resource Centre has investigated 59 major solar, bioenergy and geothermal companies and concluded that just five meet its four basic criteria to protect communities and workers. Additionally, almost half appear to have no basic protections in place. This echoes previous analysis on the wind and hydropower sectors.

According to a study carried out by the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) the British public want businesses to be more outspoken on societal issues, including digital privacy to diversity.