The new Barclays Energy and Climate Change Statement describes climate change as one of the greatest challenges faced by the world today and highlights the role banks have to play in limiting the threat that climate change poses to people and to the natural environment.

Eurosif has announced a strategic review of its mandate assisted by Thierry Philipponnat, the former chairman of the French Sustainable Investment Forum (FIR) and former head of Finance Watch.

The Merseyside Pension Fund (MPF) has confirmed that it has invested £400m in a new All World Equity Climate Balanced Multi-Factor Index Sub-Fund. In November 2018, MPF announced that it had selected a Smart-Sustainability Index from FTSE Russell, to support the implementation of its Climate Risk Strategy within the Fund’s listed equity portfolio. The fund is being managed on behalf of MPF by State Street Global Advisors (SSGA).

Research from Amundi suggests that ESG screening will have a positive outcome for portfolio performance

The Chinese National Energy Administration of the National Development and Reform Commission has announced that development of wind power and photovoltaic power generation are now, in some regions, acquiring on-grid parity of coal-fired benchmarks.

Nordea Asset Management (NAM) has added a new member to its STARS equity family, a suite of ESG solutions. The Nordea 1 – North American Stars Equity Fund leverages the successful track record of the Nordea 1 – Global Stars Equity Fund.

Sustainable infrastructure company NTR has attracted commitments of €229m for its Renewable Energy Income Fund II, of which €145m has been secured for the fund’s first close. The fund is targeting €500m and will invest in both pre-construction and operational onshore wind and solar projects across a number of European markets, together with energy storage that is associated with the wind and solar projects owned by the fund.

The World Wildlife Fund (WWF) has valued goods and services from the ocean economy at around $2.5 trillion each year, with SE Asia set to produce a quarter of the world’s seafood by 2030, a core sector of the blue economy.

EDF Renewables North America and Shell New Energies have announced that their joint venture, Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind will be developing a lease of 183,353 acres in the New Jersey Wind Energy Area (WEA).

Groupe Renault and Chinese EV maker JMCG have announced an agreement whereby Renault will take a significant part of JMEV, a subsidiary of JMCG and one of the main EV players in China.

UK Power Networks Services is partnering with UPS, High Speed 1 and WMG to assess the feasibility of using wireless charging to support the use of EVs in commercial fleets on London’s roads.

UK Power Networks has launched a new £300,000 fund for community organisations offering energy efficiency and advice to 900,000 households.

Hitachi’s decision to suspend work on the Wylfa nuclear power project could lead to a major revision of the Government’s carbon targets.

IKEA UK is partnering with the Greenwich Cooperative Development Agency (GCDA) ahead of the new IKEA Greenwich opening in February. Through the collaboration, IKEA Greenwich and GCDA will work to promote healthy and sustainable living across local Greenwich communities.

The OVO Foundation is providing additional funding to tackle youth homelessness through supporting West Midlands based charity St Basils’ Live and Work Scheme.

A from Norwegian recycling company Geminor carrying Refuse-Derived Fuel (RDF) from Italy has reached port in Sjelland, Denmark. The test shipment, consisting of 2,369 tonnes of sorted household waste RDF from Naples, is the first waste fuels export from Italy to the Scandinavian market.

New brand Elli (Electric life) will see VW enter the power supply market – following the likes of Tesla and Shell as EVs start to gain a share of the transport sector and traditional manufactures and supplier vie to create complete energy ecosystems.

The Big Issue and Konica Minolta are partnering to offer readers augmented reality via an app, genARate.

UK new car registrations fell by 6.8 per cent in 2018 to 2.37m units, but plug-in cars reached a record according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders (SMMT).

Kwik Fit has selected Children with Cancer UK as its first Charity of the Year, following a vote open to 5,000 Kwik Fit employees. The partnership will run throughout 2019 and has a fundraising target of £1m with the objective of helping to fund a new family accommodation at Royal Manchester Children’s Hospital.

Somewhat self-promoting, but our awards are open for entries and you need to get your organisation’s or partnership submission in soon.

Allianz, AXA and Swiss Re are among the brands to have received most praise from NGOs in 2018, on account of their efforts on climate change.

The new head of Goldman Sachs has apologised over the role the company played in a Malaysian 1MDB wealth fund scandal.

The Latest Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development (CIPD)/High Pay Centre analysis finds that the average FTSE 100 CEO is paid £1,020 per hour and £3.926m a year, an increase of 11 per cent on the previous year.

Alliance for Board Diversity (ABD) and Deloitte have published a study showing that the number of Fortune 500 companies with their boards having over 40 per cent women or minorities is at a high, doubling from 69 to 145 since 2012. The Missing Pieces Report: The 2018 Board Diversity Census of Women and Minorities on Fortune 500 Boards shows that women and minorities comprise an average of 34 per cent of board seats among Fortune 500 companies, up from 30.8 per cent in 2016.

Hubbub’s #LeedsByExample campaign helped bring together 26 major companies to co-invest in a high street recycling campaign in Leeds, and now the charity wants to replicate this model to tackle Londoner’s exposure to poor air quality.

Coca-Cola, Tesco and Sky have signed a statement urging Scotland to adopt a policy of zero net emissions.

A group of investors and shareholder advocacy groups have united to write an open letter to Blackrock CEO and chairman Larry Fink calling on the company to improve its climate engagements, in anticipation of its CEO’s yearly letter to companies reminding them of their need to address global strategic challenges and deliver long-term value for shareholders and society.

The West Africa Regional Stock Exchange, Bourse Régionale des Valeurs Mobilières (BRVM), and the IFC have signed an agreement for improving corporate governance practices of listed companies. Under the agreement, IFC will help BRVM design, develop, draft and implement a corporate governance code.

Based on preliminary power generation, natural gas and oil consumption data, Rhodium Group has estimated that US carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions increased by 3.4 per cent in 2018.