Hong Kong has announced the successful issuance of a $1bn inaugural green bond under its Government Green Bond Programme.

The Government should create a market for so-called ‘negative emissions’ that result from the removal of greenhouse gases from the atmosphere.

At an eventful BP AGM in Aberdeen, days after Greenpeace dropped one tonne inhabited cubes in front of its headquarters gates, shareholders have voted overwhelmingly for the company to make greater disclosure on how its business will align with climate goals.

Community benefit society Broadband for the Rural North (B4RN) has now raised £2m on the Triodos crowdfunding platform, with investment coming from both institutional investors and retail investors.

Dr Rhian-Mari Thomas, the former Global Head of Green Banking, Founder and Chair of the Green Banking Council at Barclays, has been appointed as the first CEO for the Green Finance Institute.

CFA UK, the membership body for investment professionals, is to launch a qualification in ESG.

The Bank of Italy is proposing a new scheme that will reward companies that meet ESG criteria.

The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released its World Energy Investment 2019 report, highlighting several shifts in energy production, use and investment.

Extinction Rebellion disrupted a speech by the Minister for Local Government, Rishi Sunak, at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association's (PLSA) Local Authority Conference.

Off-grid energy companies are turning to the crowd to raise debt finance with over $31m raised last year from the crowd to provide energy to sub-Saharan Africa and South Asia – an increase of $20m from 2017 – with research by Energy 4 Impact revealing that over 90 per cent of crowd-sourced funds for energy access in 2018 was raised on peer-to-peer (P2P) lending platforms.

A Kenyan company is using waste plastic to create roof tiles for homes with the support of FTSE 100 packaging company Mondi.

Wealthy individuals and charities are being asked to donate more protect the environment and the climate, with a group of scientists writing a letter to the wealthiest hundred charitable bodies and families.

Ashley Andrew, the UK MD of Hyundai, has suggested that hydrogen could be the future for commercial transport, pointing out that 15 per cent of greenhouse gas emissions in the EU in 2015 came directly from shipping.

Ørsted has launched two new green gas products for commercial operators seeking to help decarbonise their energy needs.

A report from Chatham house warns that insufficient attention has been paid to the circular economy (CE) pathways in developing countries, despite considerable innovation and policy progress.

Following the announcement of Starbucks $1bn Sustainability Bond, Starbucks has joined the World Wildlife Fund (WWF) and the Ellen MacArthur Foundation as a principal member in the new ReSource Plastic programme.

CDP has released a list of the 43 global cities that can be regarded as possessing climate leadership.

Transport for London (TfL) is to introduce the world's first hydrogen double decker buses next year, helping tackle the capital's air quality crisis.

The last time the UK lasted a week without coal-powered electricity was in 1882, but the National Grid Electricity System Operator (ESO) has confirmed the milestone in decarbonisation – with 13.24 on Wednesday 8th May marking the moment that the last coal-powered generator came off the grid, making it exactly a week of coal-free production.

OVO Foundation (OVO Energy's charity arm) has announced it has increased its investment in Project Jua, an electrification project that will reach 300,000 people across 300 sites in Kenya in three years.

Aberdeen Standard Investments, Deutsche Bank KPMG, The Berkeley Group, Deloitte, Warner Bros., ITV, Deutsche Bank and Capital One were all among the winners at the Better Society Awards 2019, celebrated with a packed ceremony in London last night.

In Washington, over 75 businesses, including BP, eBay, Nike, Mars, Microsoft, Nestlé, PepsiCo, Shell, Tesla and Unilever are meeting with federal lawmakers to call on Congress to pass meaningful climate legislation in the US, including placing a price on carbon.

Shareholders have defeated proposals that would have made the company consider the societal impact of its facial recognition technology and its action on climate change.

New measures that cover plastic straws, plastic drinks stirrers and plastic cotton buds in England will come into force from April 2020.

Amazon wants to sell its facial recognition technology to US police forces but is facing opposition at its forthcoming AGM.

A report from PwC has revealed that the overall rate of forced departures of CEOs is generally steady, but that recent trends, but more CEOs are being dismissed for ethical lapses than for financial performance or board struggles.

BP’s St James Square headquarters has been blockaded with a series of containers, forcing the company to advise workers to stay home.

The UN Secretary-General António Guterres’ drew attention to the imminent dangers of climate change, bluntly stating that conflict was a likely and increasingly probable outcome if climate change was not tackled, saying, “military strategists see clearly the possibility of climate impacts increasing tensions over resources and mass movements of people everywhere in the world.”

Tesco has retained its top spot in the Global Governance RE 100 Index, the ranking based on compliance and conformance with the UK Modern Slavery Act (MSA) (2015) and good practice in human rights of London’s largest commercial landlords by square foot.

A new study suggests that more than a third of companies have no whistleblowing system in place. The Whistleblowing Report 2019, which was conducted by the University of Applied Sciences HTW Chur in Switzerland and published by EQS Group sought the views of 1,392 companies across the UK, France, Germany and Switzerland.