Global green bond issuances reached USD 30bn in the first quarter of 2018, according to Linklaters, just outstripping the previous high in Q3 2017 and increasing the value of issuance in Q1 by 9.4 per cent compared to the same point last year.

The number of fund managers that expect oil company valuations to drop within five years as a result of energy transition risks has nearly doubled to 89 per cent, up from 46 per cent in 2017, with a third of the asset managers say they are already seeing transition risk impact.

Caritas Internationalis (the confederation of 165 Catholic relief, development and social service organisations), three leading Catholic banks with balance sheets totalling approximately euro 7.5 bn, several dioceses, and an international coalition of Catholic institutions are announcing their divestment from fossil fuels.

The United Nations believes that there is huge progress on reforming the global financial system and that it has started to deliver financing for sustainability. The final report of the UN Environment Making Waves: Aligning the Financial System with Sustainable Development highlights opportunities to align the financial system with sustainable development, as well as pathways to success.

HSBC has confirmed that it will no longer provide project finance for new tar sands and arctic drilling projects including the construction of any pipelines. The bank has also said it will no longer fund coal, apart from in Bangladesh, Indonesia and Vietnam.

Calvert Research and Management is taking on Hermes EOS, the stewardship and engagement unit of Hermes, to help support Calvert’s in-house corporate engagement programme, with Hermes EOS providing engagement, consultation and reporting services.

M&G has launched the first fund to invest predominately in private and illiquid debt to achieve a positive social or environmental impact. In creating the Impact Financing Fund M&G has worked with Sustainalytics, an independent provider of sustainability research, in order to devise a methodology to assess and measure the impact of the fund’s investments.

According to WindEurope’s Financing and Investment Trends report, Europe invested a total of euro 51.2bn in wind energy in 2017, with the development of new farms accounting for euro 22.3bn of this. The rest of the investment went on the refinancing of existing wind farms, the acquisition of projects and of companies involved in wind and on public market fundraising.

Social and Sustainable Capital (SASC) has published its 2018 Impact Report highlighting record growth for its investment portfolio over the last year, with investment volumes more than doubling to just over GBP11m.

Danish pension fund PKA, with USD 46bn under asset management has said that it is excluding 35 oil and gas companies from its investment portfolio over failures to meet the goals of the Paris climate agreement.

GE Renewable Energy and Offshore Renewable Energy (ORE) Catapult have signed a five-year research and development agreement to test and develop next generation offshore wind technologies.

LEGO Group has been progressing its sustainability goals. In 2015 it announced its ambition to use 100 per cent sustainable materials in both its bricks and packaging by 2030, and has now announced that it will aim to use 100 per cent sustainable packaging by 2025.

Wells Fargo will provide USD 200bn in financing until 2030 to businesses and projects that support a transition to a low-carbon economy. More than half of this money will be focused on companies and projects that directly support the transition to a low-carbon economy, including clean technologies, renewable energy, green bonds, and alternative transportation, with the remainder supporting companies and projects focused on sustainable agriculture, recycling, conservation, and environmentally beneficial activities.

A public opinion survey of 2,007 adults from Ecover reveals changing attitudes towards plastic usage and recycling, with a swing so strong that one in ten people couldn't be in a relationship with someone who doesn't recycle. Those who don’t recycle also cause resentment; more than a third of Britons (38 per cent) believe that people who don’t recycle are as bad as those who drop litter in the street. Even more extreme, ten per cent would even make it a criminal offence to throw recyclable material in a normal bin.

In a report, Advancing the Energy Transition, BP has set out its plans to help address the dual challenge of meeting the world’s increasing demand for energy, at the same time as reducing emissions of greenhouse gases.

Costa is pledging to recycle disposable cups by paying waste collectors to collect the cups and send them to recycling plants, estimating that at least 100 million cups can be recycled this year alone. As such it will become the first coffee chain in the UK to commit to recycling the same volume of cups it puts onto the market and to stop them ending up in landfill.

The Electrolux Group has set two targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and both have been approved by the Science Based Targets initiative, making Electrolux one of the first companies to join this collaboration against climate change.

Sky and National Geographic have announced a joint fight against plastic litter in the world’s oceans, with National Geographic committing USD10m to bring its scientific expertise, grants and media reach to support the activities of Sky Ocean Ventures.

Nestlé has announced that it is aiming to make all of its packaging recyclable or re-usable by 2025, with Nestlé CEO Mark Schneider saying, "Plastic waste is one of the biggest sustainability issues the world is facing today. Tackling it requires a collective approach. We are committed to finding improved solutions to reduce, re-use and recycle. Our ambition is to achieve 100 per cent recyclable or reusable packaging by 2025."

Bentley Motors is building UK’s largest ever solar-powered car port at Bentley’s factory headquarters in Crewe with 10,000 solar panels and a capacity of 2.7MW. Once completed, panels, that cover the car park, will take Bentley’s total energy system to 30,815 solar panels, the company already having 20,815 panels on its existing facilities.

Bob Dudley, BP CEO, has been criticised for asking Cambridge University not to drop its investments in the company. Dudley was speaking at the AIPN International Petroleum Summit in London, and made an off the cuff comment that appeared to link BP funding of the university with its investments. In what was probably an instance of verbal joking appearing sinister in print he noted: “We donate and do lots of research at Cambridge so I hope they come to their senses on this.”

Michael Bloomberg is to donate USD 4.5m to cover the US commitment to the Paris climate agreement. During an interview on CBS's Face the Nation he said Bloomberg stated that he would make up the shortfall after President Trump pulled out of the Paris deal and scrapped the US share of payments.

The Government has announced that it will end sale of plastic straws, drink stirrers and plastic-stemmed cotton buds. At the at the start of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Summit, the Prime Minister will also call on all other Commonwealth countries to join in the fight against plastic pollution.

The Good Exchange research into the key drivers and challenges involved in charitable giving, conducted by Censuswide Surveys, polled 201 corporate social responsibility (CSR) managers. More than three quarters (77 per cent) of respondents agreed that many more local charities and good causes are losing or seeing cuts in funding from central and local government, yet twice as much of the funding was donated to national charities as was allocated to charities operating at a local level.

As a part of the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting, Energy and Clean Growth Minister Claire Perry made a speech announcing that she would ask the Committee on Climate Change for advice on the implications of the Paris Agreement on domestic UK climate targets.

AI is already having an impact on our lives, from financial services to leisure there’s AI - even if you are not aware of it. But the World Economic Forum (WEF) poses an interesting and difficult question about gender. As AI potentially has can create ‘personalities’ (remember Marvin from Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy?) are the physical, vocal and even behavioural elements becoming gendered? And if they are, is this an issue and why?

Legal and General Investment Managers have had a history of pressuring companies over items such as pay, diversity and sustainability. In 2017 it voted against 215 UK pay deals and has promised to vote against the reappointment of chairs of the UK's 350 biggest public companies if women don't make up at least 25 per cent of the board.

In light of UN’s E-Commerce Week Geneva and the Commonwealth Heads of Government Meeting 2018 commence, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) United Kingdom has made calls for a cohesive voice on digital trade from the developed and emerging markets.

Accounting for Sustainability (A4S), the initiative set up by HRH the Prince of Wales to encourage sustainable decision-making, has launched a circle of practice (COP) in Singapore. Nine companies have come together to launch the COP, the first in Asia, and the group will be run with support from agri-business Olam International.

Diesel car sales have fallen by over a third (37 per cent) in March compared against March 2017 according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT). This fall follows on top of a 17 per cent decline in 2017.