Yearly Archives: 2023

World’s largest asset managers block climate action 

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https://www.energymonitor.ai/finance/sustainable-finance/worlds-largest-asset-managers-block-climate-action-amid-anti-esg-backlash/

Fresh analysis of asset managers’ 2022 proxy voting patterns reveals the world’s largest investors are backsliding on climate-related votes, mainly in the energy sector.

By Polly Bindman

While 2022 was the hottest year on record for a number of countries globally, the world’s largest asset managers’ progress on climate action has cooled. 

Investors filed a record number of shareholder resolutions relating to environmental and social issues during 2022’s proxy season. However, new analysis by non-profit ShareAction of how US, UK and European asset managers voted on these resolutions reveals that those with the biggest influence worked to block a number of key climate votes last year. 

The overall share of support across surveyed investors for environmental or social resolutions (filed mainly in the US, with a handful from other countries) increased from 60% in 2021 to 66% last year, but this was mainly down to a surge of supportive votes from asset managers in Europe, where sustainability disclosures are tightening.

Overall, the total number of supportive votes from US and UK investors barely changed between 2021 and 2022. Worryingly, the data reveals how the world’s four largest asset managers – BlackRock, State Street Global Advisors, Vanguard Group and Fidelity Investments – have worked to block key climate votes going through. 

This is particularly notable within the energy sector, where the world’s largest asset manager, BlackRock, went from supporting 72% of such votes in 2021 to just 16% in 2022.

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https://www.energymonitor.ai/finance/sustainable-finance/worlds-largest-asset-managers-block-climate-action-amid-anti-esg-backlash/

Continue ReadingWorld’s largest asset managers block climate action 

Suella Braverman misleads public with police hiring claims

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/04/suella-braverman-misleads-public-with-police-hiring-claims/

Government claims are “misleading and misplaced”

Image of Sue-Ellen 'Suella' Braverman

Suella Braverman has been called out over claims made this week that the government has hit record breaking police recruitment targets.

The government are declaring a victory for saying they have delivered a manifesto target of recruiting 20,000 more police officers in England and Wales, as Braverman appealed to the right-wing press by boasting that there are now more officers than ever before in the history of policing.

However this claim has come under rigorous scrutiny, not just from a fact checking charity but also from the Police Federation itself.

Whilst this number is correct based on an increase between 2019 and March 2023, the figures follow a substantial decline in police numbers from 2010 to 2017 – estimated by the charity Full Fact to be a fall of almost 22,000 officers.

Figures revealed that there are actually only around 3,500 more officers now than there were in 2010, due to the huge drop in numbers before 2017.

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https://leftfootforward.org/2023/04/suella-braverman-misleads-public-with-police-hiring-claims/

Continue ReadingSuella Braverman misleads public with police hiring claims

NIC and CCC call for urgent action to protect infrastructure from climate risks

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https://nic.org.uk/news/nic-and-ccc-call-for-urgent-action-to-protect-infrastructure-from-climate-risks/

The two organisations have written jointly to ministers on the urgent need for action on climate adaptation

The National Infrastructure Commission and Climate Change Committee have written jointly to government urging ministers to take steps to improve the resilience of key infrastructure services to the effects of climate change.

Building on recent reports by both organisations, the advisory bodies set out five steps to accelerate national adaptation planning to protect key networks:

  • Setting clear and measurable goals for resilience, and action plans to deliver them
  • Ensuring these standards are developed in time to inform forthcoming regulatory price control periods (which set investment levels for operators)
  • Giving explicit duties for resilience to all infrastructure regulators
  • Cabinet-level oversight of interdependencies and whole-system resilience
  • Embedding resilience in infrastructure planning as we move to an economy more reliant on electricity

The letter was sent to Oliver Dowden MP, Deputy Prime Minister and Chancellor of the Duchy of Lancaster, and Thérèse Coffey MP, Secretary of State for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs yesterday (26 April).

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https://nic.org.uk/news/nic-and-ccc-call-for-urgent-action-to-protect-infrastructure-from-climate-risks/

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Question Time audience member perfectly sums up Britain’s wealth inequality

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An excellent post from Left Foot Forward

Image of loads of money
Image of loads of money

Question Time audience member perfectly sums up Britain’s wealth inequality

An audience member on BBC Question Time last night offered a perfect summary of the wealth inequality in Britain as a result of the government’s politically motivated economic choices.

The comment came after a question on the show which asked, “is it a bit rich, for the rich, to tell us to accept being poorer?”.

This was in response to an insensitive, to say the least, remark earlier this week by the Bank of England’s Chief Economist Huw Pill who said Britons, need to accept being poorer.

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“If you put the tax burden on the very rich, it’s like, ‘ok I have a slightly smaller bank balance at the end of the year’, but you’re still rich.

“And when I say rich, I don’t mean people on £100,000 or £200,000, we’re talking about people who have billions, you could never spend it in a lifetime, you could never spend it in ten lifetimes.

“Why is that you’re then putting the burden on people who have no money, it just doesn’t make sense.”

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Question Time audience member perfectly sums up Britain’s wealth inequality

Continue ReadingQuestion Time audience member perfectly sums up Britain’s wealth inequality

‘Inflammatory, polarising and dehumanising’

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/braverman-slammed-for-using-abhorrent-and-divisive-rhetoric

Braverman slammed for using ‘abhorrent and divisive’ rhetoric as anti-refugee Bill debated

SUELLA BRAVERMAN was slammed by anti-racists and migrant rights campaigners today after saying that those coming to Britain through non-government approved routes “have values at odds with our country.”

As the Illegal Migrant Bill returned to the Commons today, the Home Secretary said: “We are seeing heightened levels of criminality when related to the people who’ve come on boats, related to drug dealing, exploitation, prostitution.”

The Bill, dubbed the anti-refugee Bill by human rights groups, will change the law so that those who arrive in Britain on small boats and other dangerous routes will be detained and removed to the country they were trying to get away from or to a third country such as Rwanda.

It is expected to pass in the Commons but could face obstacles in the Lords.

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https://morningstaronline.co.uk/article/b/braverman-slammed-for-using-abhorrent-and-divisive-rhetoric

Continue Reading‘Inflammatory, polarising and dehumanising’