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LAST Thursday, on the day the UN released overwhelming scientific proof that climate change is happening and is man-made, a group of 284 institutional investors representing $41 trillion demanded that the 2,400 largest quoted companies in the world disclose the risks and opportunities faced by those companies due to climate change.
It is the fifth such request by the Carbon Disclosure Project (www. cdproject. net), which claims to have the world's largest pool of corporate greenhouse gas information.
Climate change disclosure is an increasingly important component in ethical investment funds, according to Mercer Investment Consulting, which released data on the 2006 performance of ethical funds. The best-performing such fund was the Hibernian High Yield Equity fund, at 18.7%. Next best was the same firm's SRI managed fund, at 15%.
Worst reported was the F&C Stewardship Global Equity Fund, at 4.1% over the year.
"It is now widely recognised that addressing the financial risks and opportunities posed by climate change is consistent with a pension fund trustee's fiduciary duty, " Mercer said.
A clean conscience comes at a price, however. Simply playing the Iseq would have seen a gain of 30.7%.
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YOU ARE HERE: 11 November 2007 / tribune.ie / 2007 / 02 / 04
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