The UK’s Department for Energy Security and Net Zero (DESNZ) has announced an intention to invest £400 million ($541 million; €466 million) into the Brazil-led Tropical Forests Forever Facility. DESNZ said the investment allows it to use planned grant funding to fund a cap on bus fares in the UK. As a condition of the investment, the government is seeking participation in the relevant fund oversight mechanisms, and the decision remains subject to a review of the facility’s final size.
The US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) corporate finance division has published guidance on rules for Schedule 13D and Schedule 13G filings. Under the rules, shareholders or groups of shareholders that own more than 5 percent of a company must report it under either form 13G for passive investors, or the more complex 13D for activists. Following guidance released in February last year, the new updates include a clarification that issuer-initiated meetings to discuss voting decisions on AGM-related matters will not generally require a 13D filing, and investors can discuss issues with a person engaged in a proxy solicitation and seek clarification on statements or facts included in filings without losing 13G eligibility.
The European Parliament’s ECON committee is scheduled to vote next Thursday on its position on Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) reforms, according to a draft agenda. If the committee approves the draft report, it will clear the way for full Parliamentary approval and trilogue negotiations with the Commission and member states later this month or in October.
Analysis of voluntary climate reporting from California has found that only 12 percent include the disclosure of a formal climate transition plan, and the same percentage quantified the financial impact of climate-related risks. The assessment by the Governance & Accountability Institute (G&A) and Ceres was based on 154 reports filed by companies operating in the state, 53 percent of which were private. Reporting companies performed well on assigning management-level oversight on climate-related considerations and identifying areas of climate risk and opportunities, the report said. State-level climate disclosure laws are currently on hold due to ongoing litigation.
Dutch grid operator TenneT has raised €2.5 billion from its latest EU Green Bond in a deal that saw €17 billion in combined orders, as the firm added a further two points to its curve after receiving an explicit guarantee from the Dutch government. BNP Paribas and Deutsche Bank were global co-ordinators on the deal, together with ABN AMRO, ING, HSBC and UniCredit as joint leads. The high demand for the deal allowed TenneT to tighten pricing by three basis points versus initial guidance, according to GlobalCapital.
German transition funds occupy just 0.9 percent of the country’s sustainable fund market and manage just €9.2 billion in assets, according to Germany’s fund association BVI. Funds tracking Climate Transition and Paris-Aligned Benchmarks make up more than half of the volume, but the BVI said a distinct category under revisions to the SFDR could help make transition strategies “more visible as a distinct approach to sustainable investing and provide investors with better guidance”. This, however, depends on sufficient flexibility across asset classes and avoiding “overly stringent” exclusion criteria, it said.