A new frontier for stewardship
Stewardship has travelled a long way over the last two decades, and while it has not always been smooth sailing, when done well it has delivered positive outcomes for investors, companies and society as a whole. But active ownership is not without its challenges. Although these have changed over the years, it is instructive to […]
Engagement has a crucial role to play in the green transition
Fast reading Encouraging carbon-intensive companies to implement decarbonisation strategies is crucial to bringing down global emissions and supporting the transition to net zero. Investors are in an important position to affect real change among high-emitting companies through purposeful and effective engagement. The greatest potential for improvement lies with small- and mid-cap (SMID) companies, in our […]
An unquenchable thirst
Water is critical for life on earth. It supports biodiversity by sustaining habitats, enables agricultural and industrial processes, and is a critical resource for human consumption and sanitation. But treating water as if it were an infinite resource can drain ancient aquifers dry and reduce rivers to little more than a trickle, hurting communities and […]
Too risky to cover?
For decades, physical risk insurers and reinsurers have priced their premiums using complex probability models informed by past events. In some years, earthquakes and hurricanes might lead to bigger claims than expected, but over the long term, the pricing models would ensure that profits and losses were smoothed out. Yet the rapidity with which the […]
Public Engagement Report Q3 2024
Fast reading Insurers are exiting certain markets as physical climate risks rise and losses mount. EOS asks insurers to demonstrate how they embed climate-related considerations into their product design and pricing, as well as their capital adequacy decisions. With insurance losses from hurricanes Milton and Helene expected to run into the billions, and extensive flooding […]
Making the moat of it
An investing concept widely associated with Warren Buffett, feted CEO of Berkshire Hathaway, is to find companies with wide ‘economic moats’. Generally speaking, these are the kind of companies that have developed advantages allowing them to defend their profitability against encroaching competition. A strong brand identity (created through advertising and marketing expense) might be one […]
COP16 to challenge governments to deliver on Biodiversity Plan
Fast reading We expect to see progress towards the successful and comprehensive implementation of the Biodiversity Plan at COP16. Resource mobilisation and scaling up financing for nature from all sources will be key focus areas for negotiations. Financial institutions will address their nature-related risks and impacts through underlying changes at the companies they invest in […]
UN AMR meeting to tackle superbugs
Fast reading AMR is a systemic problem, often caused by the misuse or overprescription of antimicrobial medicines, particularly within livestock farming. There are growing regulatory and operational risks associated with AMR, ranging from its sale, use and efficacy, to discharge and wastewater pollution. EOS has been engaging with companies on AMR since 2017, alongside our […]
Disputes proliferate in fractious vote season
Shareholders attempting to exercise their rights found themselves frustrated this vote season as recalcitrant companies pushed back on investor escalation. Meanwhile, proxy contests increased in the US following regulatory changes, allowing shareholders to consider dissident nominees alongside the company’s preferred options, with a high-profile three-way battle at Disney. Biodiversity made a strong showing via resolutions […]
Engaging on demand-side climate solutions
Engagement with fossil fuel companies – “supply-side” engagement – has been a cornerstone of EOS’s climate change engagement over the last decade. In this time, oil and gas majors have committed to ambitious methane reduction targets, a greater consensus on coal phase-outs has been established, and at COP28 there was an unprecedented reference to transitioning […]
