Brexit could cause the UK to withdraw from the EU’s emissions-trading market. As one of the many levers the UK and EU continually threaten each other with, the withdraw would flood the carbon market with allowances, potentially damaging erode the deal struck by EU leaders to reduce the surplus and harden prices.

IFC has issued its first Sterling green bond, raising £350 million, the first green bond to be issued by a multilateral development bank in the Sterling market since 2015. The demand for socially responsible investment also appears to be growing, with UK-based investors accounting for 52 per cent of the final book.

The Irish Minister for Finance and Public Expenditure and Reform, Paschal Donohoe TD, has met with the CEOs and executives from the five retail banks in Ireland to discuss progress in establishing a new banking standards board.

The Republic of Ireland is set to become the first country in the world to divest all fossil fuel-linked investments. The Fossil Fuel Divestment Bill, approved with cross-party support by the lower house of the Irish legislature, the Oireachtas, commits the €8.9 billion national investment fund (the Ireland Strategic Investment Fund), to pulling out of coal, oil and gas investments “as soon as is practicable” within the next five years.

Amber infrastructure Group has launched a £500 million investment fund to support energy efficiency projects in public sector organisations and small businesses across London. The Mayor’s Energy Efficiency Fund (MEEF) is being launched in collaboration with the Mayor of London, working through the European Regional Development Fund and supported by lenders including Lloyds, NatWest, Santander UK, Sumitomo Mitsui and Triodos.

Several large UK local authority pension schemes have invested in an EDF Renewables wind farm portfolio in partnership with Dalmore Capital and Pensions Infrastructure Platform. The partners will take a 49 per cent minority stake, with EDF Renewables being paid £701 million for the stake.

The Church of England Pension Board has called for investors to work with them in order to develop a new low carbon index. Speaking at the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) Asset Owners State of Transition Climate Summit on Monday, 4 July, Church of England Pension board investment committee chair Alan Fletcher asked investors to help build on initiatives already in place and “minimise exposure to poorly rated companies”.

US-based Federated Investors has completed its acquisition of a majority holding (60 per cent) of Hermes Investment Management, one of the pioneers of integrated ESG investing.

Tesla has managed to build 5,000 Model 3 electric cars in a week, hitting a long sought after target and allowing chief executive Elon Musk to say that Tesla is now "a real car company".

Royal London has launched a range of sustainable funds for its pension customers, available to those saving through their workplace and individual pension plans.

Marks & Spencer has cut off the big six energy providers, announcing a new partnership with green challenger Octopus Energy to supply energy and services under the M&S brand from September.

Energy investment in 2017 totalled $1.8 trillion, a 2 per cent decline in real, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA) World Energy Investment 2018 Report. More than USD 750 billion went to the electricity sector while USD 715 billion was spent on oil and gas supply globally.

The UK government’s strategy for reducing road transport carbon emissions includes a proposal for all new houses built in England to be “electric vehicle ready”. The government has announced it will consult as soon as possible on “introducing a requirement for chargepoint infrastructure for new dwellings in England where appropriate”.

A cross-party group of 74 MPs and peers have said that new legislation will be needed to protect the environment after Brexit; and that reassuring public statements from Environment Secretary Michael Gove are of little value without it. In a letter organised by Geraint Davies MP, chair of the All Party Parliamentary Group on Air Pollution, the group say a new Clean Air Act is necessary.

Starbucks will start charging 5p to customers using paper cups in all 950 of its UK stores, following a successful trial in London outlets. It will also eliminate single use plastic straws from all 28,000 of its stores worldwide by 2020.

Amazon is collaborating with Save the Children for its annual Christmas Jumper Day. For every eligible Christmas Jumper purchased from the Christmas Jumper Store on amazon.co.uk and smile.amazon.co.uk during this period, Amazon will donate 20 per cent of the net purchase price to Save the Children.

The City of London Corporation, with funding and support from the Mayor of London, Transport for London (TfL) and the Dorsett Hotel, has completed the redevelopment of Aldgate Square, which contains a new pavilion designed by Make Architects.

Travelex has joined Stonewall’s Global Diversity Champions Programme and will work to progress its diversity and inclusion agenda.

Donations made through Nisa’s Making a Difference Locally (MDL) charity have hit the 10,000 mark this month, following a month of donations to support local causes. Last month, 170 donations were made by Nisa retailers and via trustee donations totalling over £215,000; bringing the total number of donations since the charity’s formation to 10,079.

Renewable wind now generates nearly 20 per cent of UK electricity according to new Government statistics. This makes up the bulk of the 30.1 per cent renewable energy that the UK produced in the first quarter of the year.

Larger companies will need to start reporting their energy use, efficiency and CO2 emissions in annual reports from April 2019 under the Government’s new framework. The framework replaces the CRC Energy Efficiency Scheme, which has been condemned as too complex.

A study of lobbying spending in the US has found that fossil fuel companies and other ‘polluting’ companies have spent more than $2bn in attempts to influence climate change legislation in the US over the past two decades.

Gender pay equality is significantly more likely to be viewed as an important factor in pay decisions by UK employers than by global companies, according to research conducted for Willis Towers Watson. Gender pay equality is becoming a more important factor in base pay decisions for almost six out of ten UK employers (58 per cent), compared to just 23 per cent of global companies, according to WTW’s 2018 Getting Compensation Right Survey.

The high levels of executive pay and large dividends are losing UK water companies the trust of the public according to regulator Ofwat.

A group of more than 100 institutional investors, managing over USD 12tr of assets, are asking companies to fully disclose how they manage their global workforce. The investor group features institutions in 11 countries including Schroders, UBS, Amundi, HSBC Asset Management, AXA Investment Managers, Legal and General IM, Nordea, Rockefeller & Co, and AustralianSuper.

The Government has decided against the Swansea Bay tidal lagoon. The decision is a blow to renewable production, but was made on evidence-based grounds of cost. The conclusion of the government’s this analysis was that the project and proposed programme of lagoons would not meet the requirements for value for money.

Google’s annual diversity report released on 14 June shows slow progress has been made towards increasing diversity in its workforce. Despite inclusion initiatives, numbers reveal Google staff remains predominantly white or Asian and distinctly male.

Asda, Coca-Cola GB, Costa, Co-op, Innocent, Lucozade Ribena Suntory, Marks and Spencer, Morrisons, PepsiCo and Shell have created a coalition that is, with partners Hubbub and recycling compliance scheme Ecosurety, improving recycling-on-the-go in Leeds. With ‘on street’ recycling facilities starting in September, the pilot hopes to be rolled out nationally in the near future, and the campaign will look to provide a range of interventions that organisations can install on their premises to encourage recycling.

On Monday night MPs voted in favour of the controversial Heathrow expansion 415 to 119. The £14 bn project will build a third runway at the airport to be completed by the year 2026.

Hermes Investment Management has appointed Ingrid Holmes and Kate Fowler in a move to expand its Responsibility Office. Leon Kamhi, head of responsibility, who leads the Responsibility Office that coordinates, develops and supports the implementation of the firm’s responsible investment and stewardship policies, commented: “At Hermes, our stewardship responsibilities are an integral element of our overall approach to responsible investment management and a crucial contributing factor to delivering strong risk-adjusted performance over the short, medium and long-term. The addition of Ingrid and Kate to our Responsibility Office reinforces our commitment to ensuring responsibility is embedded throughout our business.”