1. Home
  2. Articles posted by: Rona Fried (Page 335)

The Great Durban Agreement on Climate Change

Negotiators are calling it a great success. The World Climate Change Summit in Durban, South Africa, ended up running overtime into the wee hours of Sunday morning. Here’s the stance countries were taking throughout most of the 2-week gathering. Here are the results: 1. The EU extended the Kyoto Protocol through 2017, but Canada and Japan pulled out. 2. Next year, negotiations will begin on a new, legally binding accord that will be signed by 2015 and come into force by 2020. 3. The new accord will include ALL countries, developing and advanced. The US, China and India agreed to participate, so all the biggest polluters are now in. 4. Concrete progress was made on rules for monitoring and verifying emissions reductions, protecting forests, transferring clean technologies to developing countries and many technical issues. Countries agreed to abide by detailed guidelines for biennial emissions reports including their actions to combat global warming. The reports will be subject to expert review and formal "consultation" among all countries, which will provide greater transparency and accountability. The Green Climate Fund, which would provide $100 billion a year to developing countries by 2020, was launched under the aegis of the UN, but many critical […]

Read More

Investors Reap Long-Term Rewards by Investing in High Sustainability Companies

greenbox.jpg

A new study answers an elusive question – does investing in companies known for sustainable business practices result in better returns than investing in conventional companies? The study finds that yes, investing in sustainable corporations yields significantly better results both on stock and accounting performance. But like sustainability itself, those results are realized over a longer time frame. The outperformance is stronger for companies that sell directly to individuals rather than other companies – where they compete on the basis of brand reputation, and where products significantly depend upon extracting large amounts of natural resources. The key is how long the policies have been in place and how well they’ve permeated a company’s culture. Companies that long ago adopted environmental and social policies – "High Sustainability Companies" – exhibit fundamentally different characteristics than traditional firms that have never adopted these policies, conclude the researchers from Harvard and London Business Schools. High Sustainability Companies are much more likely to take a long-term view of their business. Their boards of directors are responsible for sustainability and they link top executive incentives with clear environmental and social metrics. Moreover, they are more likely to have organized procedures for engaging with stakeholders and to […]

Read More