Schlechte Umweltnews und Soziales Umfeld

Schleche Umweltnews: Mehr Braun als Grün geplant: The Production Gap – Governments’ planned fossil fuel production remains dangerously out of sync with Paris Agreement limits vom Stockholm Environment Institute e al. vom 20. Oktober 2021: “Governments plan to produce more than twice the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than would be consistent with limiting warming to 1.5°C. The production gap has remained largely unchanged since our first analysis in 2019. … Most major oil and gas producers are planning on increasing production out to 2030 or beyond, and several major coal producers are planning on continuing or increasing production. … G20 countries have directed more new funding to fossil fuels than clean energy since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic” (S. 2).

Schlechte Umweltnews: Starkes Plastikwachstum: The New Coal – Plastics and Climate Change von Beyond Plastics vom 21. Oktober 2021: “At least 42 plastics facilities have opened since 2019, are under construction, or are in the permitting process. … these new plastics plants could release an additional 55 million tons of CO2e gases – the equivalent of another twenty-seven 500-megawatt coal-fired power plants – by the year 2025. … less than 9% of plastic is recycled. In response to criticism, the industry has issued new versions of these old promises, offering to build infrastructure that it describes as “advanced recycling” or “chemical recycling.” These facilities do not recycle, however. Most spend vast amounts of energy catalyzing chemical changes designed to turn plastics into more burnable fuel. …. the extraction of fracked gases in the U.S. for plastics production at home and abroad releases at least 1.5 million tons of leaked methane each year. Because methane lingers for a dozen years in the atmosphere, these leaks are additive …(S. 6/7).

Klimakatastrophenfiktion (von 2014): Gletscherdämmerung – Eine Chronik des Klimawandels aus der Zukunft von Naomi Oreskes und Erik M. Conway von 2014/2015: „Der ungebremste Klimawandel gipfelte im Großen Kollaps des Jahres 2093, als der Zusammenbruch des westantarktischen Eisschilds die Welt ins Chaos stürzte“. Laut Nature „eine fulminante Mischung aus Fakten, kluger Spekulation und beißendem Sarkasmus“.

Schlechte Umweltnews: CO2 Kompensationsfiktion: Do Carbon Offsets Offset Carbon? von Raphael Calel, Jonathan Colmer, Antoine Dechezleprêtre und  Matthieu Glachant vom 28. Oktober 2021 (24#): “We develop and implement a new method for identifying wasted subsidies, and use it to provide systematic evidence on the misallocation of carbon offsets in the Clean Development Mechanism—the world’s largest carbon offset program. … we estimate that at least 52% of approved carbon offsets were allocated to projects that would very likely have been built anyway. In addition to wasting scarce resources, we estimate that the sale of these offsets to regulated polluters has substantially increased global carbon dioxide emissions” (abstract).

Weniger Ungleichheit? Wealth and History: An Update von Daniel Waldenström vom 28. Oktober 2021 (#42): “First, aggregate wealth-income ratios were not as high before pre-World War I as previously thought. Second, the structure of private wealth has changed over the twentieth century, from being dominated by elite fortunes in agriculture or businesses to consisting mainly of widely dispersed assets in housing and funded pensions. Third, wealth concentration fell until the 1970s after which it has remained low in Europe but increased in the United States. Fourth, the capital share in national income has been fairly stable over the past century, especially in the postwar era. These new findings  …. cast doubt over the view that an unfettered capitalism, …generates extreme levels of capital accumulation” (S. 15/16).

Nachhaltige Investments

Klimagovernance für Banken: Banks and Climate Governance von Sarah E. Light & Christina P. Skinner vom 18. Oktober 2021 (#23): “.. the role of banks in the transition to a low-carbon economy is highly complex. Banks have a social aspect to their purpose, as evidenced by history, economics, and the law. They must intermediate credit responsibly and in view of risk, while also minding the wealth and welfare of their shareholders. They also have strong private incentives to tackle head-on the economic challenges implicated by climate change. This unique mix of private incentives and public ethos has placed banks front and center in the transition to a low-carbon economy. This Essay draws attention to the foundations of this role for banks, and creates a framework for understanding how banks are fulfilling this role and where they might turn next” (S. 57).

Wenige Kreditmarktteilnehmer können viel tun: Can debt capital markets save the planet? The rapid changes our planet needs are possible, but only if we pull the right levers von Jochen Krimphoff, Ellen Lam und Rob Fowler von WWF vom September 2021: “… in the past five years the top 30 investment banks, which play a pivotal role in the origination and distribution of capital, have underwritten USD 4 trillion in fossil fuel debt, earning a total fee almost twice the amount generated from arranging or underwriting green transactions. … The good news is that in debt capital markets a small number of people really can help save the planet. And the COVID-19 crisis has shown that rapid change is possible if we pull the right levers” (S. 5).

Hoher Bedarf an grüner Finanzierung: Beitrag von Green Finance zum Erreichen von Klimaneutralität in Deutschland von Heiko Burret et al. von Prognos, Nextra und NKI im Auftrag der KfW vom Juli 2021: „Die vorliegende Analyse berechnet erstmals die gesamten Klimaschutzinvestitionen, die zur Erreichung von Klimaneutralität in Deutschland erforderlich sind. Für eine Reduktion der Treibhausgasemissionen um 87 Prozent (gegenüber 1990) sind im Zeitraum von 2020 bis 2050 Klimaschutzinvestitionen in Höhe von insgesamt rund 4,5 Bio. Euro erforderlich. Knapp die Hälfte davon entfällt auf den Verkehrssektor (48 %) … Die jährlichen Investitionsbedarfe entsprechen dann 3,9 Prozent des BIP“ … (S. Xi).

ESG weiter positiv: The Recent Performance of ESG Investing, the Covid-19 Catalyst and the Biden Effect von Frédéric Lepetit et al von Amundi vom 21. Oktober 2021 (#36): “Our results also demonstrate the Social pillar’s strong performance in North America since the end of 2020. Additionally, we show that companies with better Governance have been the most resilient in terms of performance during the pandemic’s troublesome market environment, independently of the region considered. In North America, employing credit market data, we demonstrate that these firms also benefited from a lower corporate cost of debt. In Emerging Asia, we have witnessed strong ESG performance since the end of 2020. Finally, employing a predictive non-linear framework, our results support ESG as a serious candidate risk factor not only in the EMU, but also in North America since 2019” (abstract). Mein Kommentar: Vgl. Soehnholz ESG YTD Performance: Passive Asset-Allokation funktioniert sehr gut – Verantwortungsvolle (ESG) Geldanlage (prof-soehnholz.com)

ESG-Renditerisiken? Flow-Driven ESG Returns von Philippe van der Beck vom 26. Oktober 2021 (#751): “Flow-driven price pressure is the product of sustainable funds’ deviation from the market portfolio and the market’s elasticity of substitution between stocks. I find that a $1 ESG-flow raises the aggregate market capitalization of high ESG-taste firms by $2 to $2.5. As a result, high ESG-taste stocks would have strongly underperformed low ESG-taste stocks under the absence of flow-driven price pressure. … Flows towards green funds, that invest in cross-sectionally inelastic stocks, substantially reduce the cost of capital of the firms in the fund’s portfolio” (S. 23). Mein Kommentar: Vielleicht sollte man lieber in nachhaltige Mid- und nicht Megacaps investieren, siehe mein Ansatz z.B. hier Nachhaltigster Aktienfonds? – Verantwortungsvolle (ESG) Geldanlage (prof-soehnholz.com)

Offenlegungsverordnungsupdate: Final Report on draft Regulatory Technical Standards with regard to the content and presentation of disclosures pursuant to Article 8(4), 9(6) and 11(5) of Regulation (EU) 2019/2088 von den European Supervisory Authorities vom 22. Oktober 2021. Mein Kommentar: Hier geht es zu meinen Artikel 9 Fonds: FutureVest Equity Sustainable Development Goals R – DE000A2P37T6 – A2P37T

Traditionelle und alternative Investments

Benchmark-Betrug? Benchmark Backdating in Mutual Funds von Kevin Mullally und Andrea Rossi vom 11. August 2021 (#43): “… we find that mutual funds systematically and strategically change their self-designated benchmark indices to embellish their relative past performance. Simply put, funds add indices with lower past returns and drop indices with high past returns. In short, we provide evidence that funds deliberately provide unreliable information directly to investors in their SEC mandated disclosures” (S. 24). Mein Kommentar: Dann vielleicht Lieber so: Einfache „Weltverbesserung“ mit verantwortungsvollen Geldanlage-Benchmarks – Verantwortungsvolle (ESG) Geldanlage (prof-soehnholz.com)

Immobilienrisikoproblem: Impact of Institutional Investors on Real Estate Risk von Dragana Cvijanovi, Stanimira Milcheva und Alex Van De Minne vom 14. Oktober 2021 (#5): “Private real estate markets have experienced significant inflows of institutional capital over the last couple of decades. … we find novel empirical evidence that market entry by large institutional investors predicts higher uncertainty and greater noise in real estate prices in the short and medium run, and lower longitudinal risk in the long run”.

M&A kann krank machen: How Do Acquisitions Affect the Mental Health of Employees? von Laurent Bach, Ramin P. Baghai, Marieke Bos und Rui C. Silva vom 21. Oktober 2021 (#89): “Recently, the WHO estimates that depression and anxiety disorders cost the global economy $1tn each year in lost productivity … We find that, on average, workers exposed to a merger experience a significant increase in the likelihood of suffering from mental health problems. In absolute terms, the effects are of similar magnitude to the (positive) mental health impact of marriage. While the effects are felt by workers in target as well as acquiring firms and leavers as well as stayers, the negative effects of mergers are most pronounced for women, ’blue-collar’ workers, employees with lower levels of cognitive and noncognitive skills, and employees who see their employment status change in the aftermath of the merger” (S. 30/31).

Anti-Impact durch PE? Private-Equity-Investoren in der Pflege – Eine Studie über das Agieren von Private-Equity-Investoren im Pflegebereich in Europa von Théo Bourgeron, Caroline Metz und Marcus Wolf im Auftrag von Finanzwende und Heinrich-Böll-Stiftung vom 14. Oktober 2021: „ungewöhnlich hohe Schulden … bedroht das langfristige Bestehen der jeweiligen Pflegeheimgruppe ….schlechtere Arbeitsbedingungen und Abfluss öffentlichter Gelder …“ (S. 2-4).

Positives Private Equity: Private Equity in the Hospital Industry von Janet Gao, Merih Sevilir und Yong Seok Kim vom 8. Oktober 2021 (#141):  “While we find that PE acquirers are associated with significant employment cuts at acquired hospitals, they also are associated with an increase in the ratio of skilled employees. Importantly, although non-PE acquirers are associated with a decline in employment at target hospitals, the ratio of skilled employees does not change at the hospitals they acquire. Consistent with these findings, patient satisfaction outcomes do not worsen for PE acquirers whereas patient satisfaction at target hospitals acquired by non-PE acquirers significantly worsen. In addition, we do not observe a deterioration in real patient outcomes in PE-acquired hospitals, alleviating the concerns that PE firms improve efficiency at the expense of patients” (S. 32).

Advisortech

Modellportfoliokritik: Are Model Marketplaces Living Up to Their Promise? Von Diana Britton von Wealtmananagment.com vom 22. Oktober 2021: Model portfolio marketplaces on fintech platforms were hyped as the next wave of innovation for indie advisors. But some asset managers say the money is just not showing up. Mein Kommentar: Anlageberater, Robo Advisors oder Modellportfolios: Wer wird gewinnen? – Verantwortungsvolle (ESG) Geldanlage (prof-soehnholz.com)

Viel Neues in eigener Sache:

29.10. (Videointerview) ESG-Experte Dirk Söhnholz über ESG-Mythen im Asset Management (fundview.de): u.a. Kritik an Best-in-Class und aggregierten ESG-Ratings

27.10. (Videointerview) ESG-Experte Dirk Söhnholz: „Viele aktive nachhaltige Fonds sind nicht nachhaltig“ (fundview.de): u.a. zu anti-nachhaltigen ESG Progress/Momentum Strategien

20.10. (18min Podcast) 19. Hedgework-Talk: „Die Nachhaltigkeits-Regulierung alleine bringt den Anlegern nicht viel“ – HEDGEWORK – Das Event rund um alternative Investments für institutionelle Investoren

20.10. (Zitate) Wo geht’s zum 1,5-Grad-Ziel? – DIE STIFTUNG (die-stiftung.de) u.a. mit Kritik an Benchmarkorientierung

Oktober (Kurzvideo) FutureVest Equity Sustainable Development Goals R – DE000A2P37T6 – A2P37T: Informationen zu meinem Fonds

23.9. (Interview) „Mut zur Konzentration auf das Wesentliche ist wichtig“ – HEDGEWORK – Das Event rund um alternative Investments für institutionelle Investoren