| From across the nation and around the world, INSIGHTS-edge brings you news, commentary and research in key areas of interest regarding ESG, Sovereign Wealth Funds and US Public Sector Pension Funds. We watch the watchers...who are watching you. ESG / Sustainability In BP’s Record, a History of Boldness and Costly Blunders
(Source: NY Times) Hurricane Dennis had already come and gone on July 11, 2005, when a passing ship spotted a shocking sight in the Gulf of Mexico: Thunder Horse, BP’s hulking $1 billion oil platform, was listing precariously to one side, looking for all the world as if it were about to sink. CDP and GRI Collaborate For More Streamlined CSR Disclosure
(Source: Triple Pundit) Last week the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) released a linkage document that demonstrates the growing collaboration between the two organizations. The 16-page document outlines how corporate social responsibility (CSR) reporters can use or adapt the same data for both reporting processes. ESG issues ‘are’ financial risks for pension funds says influential Towers Watson head, Roger Urwin
(Source: Responsible Investor) The assumption that environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues are ‘extra’-financial is wrong, but better metrics are needed to prove their short- to medium-term material impact on company performance, according to Roger Urwin, global head of investment content at Towers Watson, and one of the world’s most influential investment advisors. Speaking to Responsible-investor.com, Urwin, who is also an advisory director to MSCI Barra, which recently bought RiskMetrics, the New York-based risk and ESG firm, said he predicted that one development that might dispel the extra-financial argument could be the launch of ESG credit ratings, akin to bond ratings. Sovereign Wealth Funds Randolph Sees `High' Chance of Abu Dhabi Buying BP Stake (video)
(Source: Washington Post) Jan Randolph, director of sovereign risk at IHS Global Insight Inc., talks about the prospects for the Abu Dhabi sovereign wealth fund buying a stake in BP Plc. Randolph talks with Mark Barton on Bloomberg Television's "Countdown." (Bloomberg) Sovereign wealth funds to plump Gulf Arabs' financial muscle
(Source: Newsy Stocks.com) Gulf Arab emirates' dissatisfaction with the international crude prices could upset taxi drivers in downtown New York city as their daily income would shrink from a hike in oil prices. In addition, these desert states' financial weight in the western market could not be downplayed in the years to come as they are home to several top sovereign wealth funds grown from steady oil and gas revenues. Singapore sovereign fund Temasek sees profits plunge
(Source: AFP) SINGAPORE — Singapore's state-linked investment firm Temasek Holdings announced a plunge in profits Thursday of 26 percent for the year ended March after taking a heavy hit during the global crisis. |
Visit INSIGHTS-edge to get the most up to date information.
Contents © 2009
All Rights Reserved Copyrights for other providers are
noted where appropriate.
Please credit the source if quoted. |
US Public Sector Pension Funds Pension Funds Flexing Some Muscle on Foreclosures
(Source: Firedoglake.com) Today, the Comptroller of the City of New York along with the presidents of several large unions sent a letter to some of the biggest baddest banks in the foreclosure mess and told those banks to get their acts together and start making mortgage modifications. In a press conference in lower Manhattan, Comptroller John Liu, Michael Mulgrew, President, UFT, George Gresham, President, 1199 SEIU, John Samuelsen, President, TWU Local 100, and New York Communities for Change announced a letter sent to Citigroup, JPMorgan Chase, Bank of America and Wells Fargo demanding that the banks do “everything possible” to avert foreclosures Officials challenge study showing state's pension fund going broke
(Source: CTMirror.com) The Northwestern University study concluding that the pension funds of Connecticut and 19 other states will be broke by 2025 is fundamentally flawed, failing to account for future contributions to cover unfunded liabilities, according to the National Association of State Retirement Administrators. And state Treasurer Denise L. Nappier said Thursday that while Connecticut's state employee pension fund has been "chronically underfunded" the state still is required through its benefits contract with worker unions to both meet annual costs and save for future liabilities. Adviser: State Pension Fund Could Go Bust in 2019
(Source: Star.com) FRANKFORT, KY - A financial adviser says Kentucky's state pension fund could run out of money in 2019. Jim Voytko, president of R.V. Kuhns & Associates, Inc., told a legislative committee on Thursday his analysis was a worst case reading of what would happen if contributions remain inadequate and investments sag. Watching the Watchers  Pesticide Action Network North America
Headquarters: San Francisco, California
Established: 1982
OVERVIEW / MISSION
The Pesticide Action Network of North America (PANNA) writes that its works focuses on replacing traditional pesticide use with “ecologically sound and socially just alternatives.” Based in the USA, PANNA is one of five autonomous PAN Regional Centers worldwide, linking local and international consumer, labor, health, environment and agriculture groups into an international citizens' action network. Reason for being: “This network challenges the global proliferation of pesticides, defends basic rights to health and environmental quality, and works to ensure the transition to a just and viable society." |
