Equity manager divests Cisco shares over human rights

Boston Common Asset Management, the US-based sustainable asset manager, has dumped Cisco Systems’ shares over the Internet technology firm’s weak human rights risk management and poor response to investor concerns... Read more at Responsible Investor

U.S. Clean Power Sector Could Attract $342 Billion By 2020

The United States could attract $342 billion in clean power project investments over the next decade, according to a report released today by The Pew Charitable Trusts. The U.S. is among the three G-20 members with the most to gain by implementing strong clean energy policies. Additionally, strong policies could better position the U.S. to compete more effectively for a share of the $2.3 trillion that could be invested globally in clean power projects over the next 10 years... Read More

2010 Clean Energy Investment Hits a New Record

Bloomberg New Energy Finance released 2010 investment figures this week. Although certain sectors like wind and biofuels had a rough year in some countries, the overall trends in project finance, venture capital and supply-chain investments were very positive.

According to BNEF, new global investment in clean energy reached $243 billion in 2010, up from $186.5 billion in 2009. Last year's investment figures double those from 2006. The main factors in this growth were the massive Chinese market, the expansion of offshore wind, hot European solar markets and global R&D ...  Read More

Empire State Building Turns to 100% Green Power

Already the nation's largest green retrofit project, the Empire State Building has achieved another distinction -- this as New York's largest green power purchaser.

"Everything that we're doing at the Empire State Building is about business and, bottom line, that's the first and most important thing," said Anthony Malkin, CEO of real estate management firm Malkin Holdings. "We're not about paying more to do something qualitatively different; we're about market-ready solutions. We didn't know we were doing green power until the bid was won by Green Mountain..." Read more at GreenBiz.com

Is the End of Coal Already Here?

"Coal is a dead man walking. Banks won’t finance them. Insurance companies won’t insure them. The EPA is coming after them. . . . And the economics to make it clean don’t work," says Kevin Parker, head of asset management for Deutsche Bank. The industry began work on 19 plants between 2000 and 2008. They started with plans to start twice that many new ones last year, but dropped them all, plus they announced that they would retire 48 more aging plants. It almost seems like it doesn’t pay to pollute anymore. Read more at Triple Pundit.com

Pension giant challenging Apple over corporate governance

The California Public Employees' Retirement System is seeking to change the policies of Apple and 57 other large companies that make up a portion of its nearly $200 billion U.S. portfolio. By lobbying for new rules requiring a majority vote for directors, CalPERS is hoping to bring about higher board member accountability to shareholders. Read more

Positive signs from Cancun despite US institutional investor absence

The absence of U.S. institutional investors at the UN’s Cancun climate change talks was a telling sign that there wasn’t much hope for a major treaty that would dramatically shift the risk/reward equation for climate-related investing. While their European counterparts advocated for a strong carbon-reducing accord in Cancun, U.S. investors largely stayed at home, where lackluster returns and long-term pension obligations are their more immediate concerns.

Though there were silver linings in the negotiations involving nearly 200 nations, they still failed to produce a legally binding agreement for reducing global greenhouse gas emissions. That means there will continue to be only limited opportunities for low-carbon green investing worldwide. “I can’t do anything unless it serves the best interests of my membership,” says Ole Beier Sorensen, chief of strategy and research at the $90 billion Danish pension fund ATP, bemoaning the lack of an international climate accord during a Cancun panel discussion. “We need clear and sustained long-term policy commitments.”
Read more at Responsible Investor.com