The Responsible Investor Podcast

Asset owners across the UK, Europe and US are sharpening their focus on asset manager stewardship, and an increasing regulatory focus on stewardship outcomes and transition-focused products is leading investors to think harder about how they can demonstrate that their own engagements are having an effect. Jennifer Walmsley, associate director for corporate engagement at the Institu

Global investments in renewable energy reached a new record of more than $700 billion in 2024, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. But this year has brought uncertainty and challenges on many fronts, perhaps most notably from the new Trump administration. The good news is that uncertainty is something the sector is used to, says Jérôme Guillet, co-founder of renewables adv

Net-zero as a concept is under pressure, and for investors to assess the best path forward, it is crucial to understand how companies and other holdings are managing this – and what efforts they are undertaking to navigate the transition. This is what the Transition Pathway Initiative (TPI) has helped investors with since its inception in 2017. Carmen Nuzzo, the executive directo

With big asset managers rushing to exit climate initiatives and ESG opponents taking centre stage in the US, responsible investment is under scrutiny as never before. What does this mean for up-and-coming asset owners with sustainability ambitions? This is a key question for Dan Mikulskis, CIO of People's Partnership, one of the fastest-growing workplace pension providers in the UK

Three years ago, in the run-up to COP26, financial institutions rushed to sign up to the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). A renewed focus on fiduciary duty, however, combined with concerns about the real-world impact of reducing portfolio emissions, is now prompting asset managers to rethink strategies and methodologies for net zero. Daisy Streatfeild has seen the i

After an autumn of devastating floods in Florida, Spain and southern Italy, the need to protect populations from the impacts of climate change has shot up the agenda for policymakers. Nature can play a crucial role in climate adaptation, from protecting coastlines from rising sea levels to slowing or reducing water run-off upstream of urban centres. In this episode, veteran investo

The global UN biodiversity summit delivered on the buzz – and had a huge private sector turnout. The overall outcomes, however, have been widely described as “a mixed bag” on the positive end of the scale, while many called it underwhelming. But investors did not leave Cali empty handed, with a flurry of announcements on nature transition plans, investment products, collectiv

Mining is a notoriously dirty and dangerous business – so much so that it has often been shunned by responsible and risk-averse investors. In recent years, the Brumadinho dam disaster and the Juukan Gorge scandal have provided ample evidence of the environmental and social risks associated with the sector. Yet it is crucial to the energy transition. According to the Global Invest

When Responsible Investor talks to investors about transition finance, capital expenditure almost always features. Folksam’s chief economist Marcus Svedberg told RI earlier this year that studying capex flows is a good indicator of where companies are going, and that ideally “you want to be overwhelmed by how much they are investing in new technologies, technologies of the futu

Transition finance is the fastest-growing area in sustainable investment. Over the past two years, the amount invested in transition-focused funds in Europe doubled as inflows into traditional ESG funds stalled. The appeal of transition finance is obvious. It offers sustainability-minded investors access to a broader range of sectors and companies than “pure green” strategies,