<figure class="image">
<p></p>
<img alt="" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1664862076599_stephen-o-donnell-KX5voOmARSI-unsplash.jpg/th1000" />
<figcaption>*Glasgow city view; Picture Source: Unsplash&nbsp;</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="" height="440" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1664862132592_ENUS.png/th1000" width="500" /></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Party is Over: Financial institutions threaten to&nbsp;green finance alliance over compliance burden</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">As COP26 enthusiasm cools down, financial institutions are realizing that commitment to net zero may actually bear consequences and are threatening to leave. According to the <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/0affebaa-c62a-49d1-9b44-b9d27f0b5600" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Financial Times</a>, JP Morgan, Morgan Stanley and Bank of America, among other Wall Street banks have warned of departure from the world&rsquo;s largest climate finance coalition as a result of the rising compliance costs with more stringent targets of decarbonisation and coal phase-down being proposed.</p>

<figure class="image">
<p></p>
<img alt="" height="262" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1664862301843_GFANZ-OG.jpg/th1000" width="500" />
<figcaption>*Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ)</figcaption>
</figure>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, or GFANZ, was established in April 2021 by Mark Carney, UN special envoy on climate action and former governor of the Bank of England as well as the COP26 president, in partnership with the UNFCCC Race to Zero campaign. As of last November, the total capital committed to net zero through the organisation had&nbsp;reached <a href="https://www.gfanzero.com/press/amount-of-finance-committed-to-achieving-1-5c-now-at-scale-needed-to-deliver-the-transition/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">USD 130tr, from over 450 firms across 45 countries</a>.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Members of the alliance are required to meet the climate targets set by the Race to Zero, including a recent ban on support for new coal projects, which members will need to comply starting June 2023. According to an August <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/58575db9-5670-4b2d-a555-2c3aed0fdd6d" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">report</a> by FT, financial institutions may see their GFANZ membership being revoked if they fail to meet such targets.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">FT cited a senior executive at a US bank who said it is &ldquo;immoral and irresponsible&rdquo; that a third-party body creates legal liabilities for the bank and its shareholders. A bank might be subject to mistakes and misinformation in meeting these targets and could be sued, which the executive considers as &ldquo;an unacceptable risk&rdquo;.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">A Bloomberg <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-21/jpmorgan-morgan-stanley-signal-doubts-on-carney-s-climate-group" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">report</a> said US banks may also suffer from legal charges in the fallout of the anti-ESG moves of some US states to blacklist banks and investment firms that appear to &ldquo;boycott&rdquo; fossil fuel to their recognition. European banks, including the Spanish Santander have also sensed the difficulties to align its business with GFANZ visions. So far, no Chinese bank has joined the GFANZ.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-25/al-gore-calls-out-greenwashing-as-climate-pledges-in-doubt?srnd=green-esg-investing" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Bloomberg</a>, the GFANZ has seen the withdrawal of two firms in the past month. An Austrian pension firm called Bundespensionskasse AG, and a construction private equity fund named Construction &amp; Building Unions Superannuation Fund, also known as Cbus also officially left the alliance. Some private equity firms have commented that eliminating carbon footprints by 2050 is nearly impossible, making it an unnecessary burden to join GFANZ.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Climate activists are worried about the greenwashing risks. Former US vice president Al Gore called out the green-washing phenomenon and questioned the credibility of the net zero pledges.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">One year old startup crowned unicorn thanks to booming solar energy industry</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><a href="https://www.qhlihao.net/info/1010/1417.htm" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Lihao Semiconductor</a> last week announced the completion of series B funding which injected RMB 2.2bn (USD 309m) of capital into the company. Lihao Semiconductor is a producer of high-purity crystalline silion, a key material of photovoltaic cells. The funding has attracted Changjiang Securities Innovation Investment, China Belgium Direct Equity Investment Fund, and China-U.S. Green Fund.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">It has been less than two years since the company was established in Qinghai, a part of western China. An investor who wishes to remain anonymous told <a href="https://mp.weixin.qq.com/s?__biz=MzI5ODk1NjY1MA==&amp;mid=2247581292&amp;idx=1&amp;sn=00105ad051f5a1417e74d6a5b5285e75&amp;chksm=ec9e1c69dbe9957f89605d22d97d7ab13d7cb7ffb7f2a4c1bdb91788b9a0cb4a226c9c977941&amp;mpshare=1&amp;scene=1&amp;srcid=10027qUFlQMfaEMI2rneRPuB&amp;sharer_sharetime=1664713804176&amp;sharer_shareid=8fed5a8b941441b6be1003525ee13357&amp;version=4.0.8.6027&amp;platform=win#rd" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">PEdaily</a>, a private-equity-focused Chinese media in the latest funding, the company has hit a valuation of over RMB 11bn (USD 1.6bn), making it a unicorn.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Fed taps six largest US banks for first ever climate stress test</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">In a latest <a href="https://www.federalreserve.gov/newsevents/pressreleases/other20220929a.htm" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">announcement</a> on September 29, the Federal Reserve has underlined Bank of America, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan Chase, Morgan Stanley, and Wells Fargo to take part in its inaugural pilot climate scenario analysis exercise. The exercise, to be launched in early 2023 and span across the whole year, is designed to enhance the ability of supervisors and firms to measure and manage climate-related financial risks.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Over the pilot exercise period, the six banks will analyse the impact of the scenarios on specific portfolios and business strategies. The Federal Reserve Board will review the analysis results and engage with the banks regarding building capacity to manage climate-related financial risks. Unlike normal stress tests, the climate stress test is &ldquo;exploratory in nature&rdquo; and will not impact the capital reserves of banks.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Catching up on biodiversity</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">As the second part UN Biodiversity Conference (COP15) is approaching, attention paid to biodiversity is growing globally. At the UN General Assembly in New York, Olaf Scholz, Chancellor of Germany, announced to expand its biodiversity funding to EUR 1.5bn (USD 1.5bn) per year, Caixin <a href="https://www.caixin.com/2022-09-27/101946307.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">reported</a>.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">What&rsquo;s more? BNP Paribas Asset Management has launched a eurozone biodiversity fund, BNP Paribas Easy ESG Eurozone Biodiversity Leaders PAB ETF. Categorised as an Article 9 fund under the EU SFDR, the fund will track a portfolio of eurozone companies that have a lower impact on biodiversity than&nbsp;their peers. According to <a href="https://www.responsible-investor.com/friday-funds-bnp-am-launches-first-biodiversity-pab-etf/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Responsible Investor</a>, it is the first ETF aligned with the EU&rsquo;s Paris-Aligned Benchmarks (PAB).</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Estimated substantial loss caused by hurricane Ian</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">One of the strongest storms ever to hit the US, Hurricane Ian has left more than 2 million people living off the grid as of Thursday morning last week. This is not the first time climate experts have warned us about having this type of catastrophic storm striking the west coast of Florida, where population and development skyrocketed in recent years, despite the potential risk of being hit by massive storms.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">This massive category 4 storm has hit Florida with exceptional force, and this is likely linked to climate change. Had this hurricane occurred a hundred years ago, the intensity certainly would not be as strong, climate scientist Katharine Hayhoe of Texas Tech University and the Nature Conservancy <a href="https://twitter.com/KHayhoe/status/1574512686674903040" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">commented</a> on social media.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Potential Australian coal mine development undermines climate agenda</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Climate advocates express concerns as the Australian government proposes a pipeline of coal mine projects in the country. According to a study by Move Beyond Coal, a Sydney-based climate advocacy group, if the 29 proposed new mines and mine expansions are developed to their full capacity, it would lead to a staggering increase of 250 million of CO2 emissions per year and eventually 17 billion tons &ndash; more than half of the global emission in 2021.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Despite the Australia&rsquo;s Green Party and pro-climate independent lawmakers&rsquo; appeal to push for more stringent environmental laws, ministers currently are not required by law to consider climate impacts when considering these new coal mine projects.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Pemex pressured to reduce emissions as it seeks financing from HSBC and Goldman</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The Mexican oil &amp; gas company Petroleos Mexicanos, also known as Pemex, is pressured to reduce emissions as the company seeks financial funding, after the government ceased paying for the company&rsquo;s debt service due to unsatisfactory liquidity performance.&nbsp;</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">According to <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2022-09-28/goldman-hsbc-in-talks-with-pemex-on-1-billion-esg-financing?srnd=green-esg-investing" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Bloomberg</a>, the company has reached a preliminary agreement with HSBC and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. to provide financing amid their liquidity crunch. It was alleged that USD 1bn financing would be provided under the conditions that the company fulfils certain emission reduction goals.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Connecting workplace: BNP Paris AM names APAC head of stewardship, JLL&rsquo;s new chief sustainability officer</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="background-color:#fff9e7"><span style="color:#f2b300"><em>BNP Paribas AM</em></span></span> has appointed <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/janekarenho/?originalSubdomain=hk" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><span style="background-color:#e1f4fb"><span style="color:#1ba4dd"><em>Jane Karen Ho</em></span></span></a> as <span style="background-color:#e1f4fb"><span style="color:#1ba4dd"><em>Head of Stewardship, Asia Pacific</em></span></span>, within its Global Sustainability Centre in Singapore, as reported by <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/bnp-paribas-am-appoints-jane-karen-ho-as-head-of-stewardship-for-asia-pacific/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ESG TODAY</a>. She will lead BNP Paribas AM&rsquo;s stewardship activities in the region, including researching key corporate governance issues, undertaking direct and collaborative engagement on sustainable themes, and working with policymakers on issues relating to sustainable finance. Prior to the appointment, Jane worked as the Director of Investor Practice at the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC).</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Leading real estate and investment management-focused professional services provider <span style="background-color:#fff9e7"><span style="color:#f2b300"><em>JLL</em></span></span> <a href="https://www.jll.com.hk/en/newsroom/jll-appoints-erin-meezan-as-chief-sustainability-officer" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">announced</a> the appointment of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/erinmeezan/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline"><span style="background-color:#e1f4fb"><span style="color:#1ba4dd"><em>Erin Meezan</em></span></span></a><span style="background-color:#e1f4fb"><span style="color:#1ba4dd"><em><u> </u></em></span></span>as <span style="background-color:#e1f4fb"><span style="color:#1ba4dd"><em>Chief Sustainability Officer (CSO)</em></span></span>. Erin brings along more than 19 years of experience in the sustainability field. Prior to joining JLL, she was the VP and Chief Sustainability Officer of modular flooring company Interface. According to the official announcement, Erin will be leading the expansion of JLL&rsquo;s sustainability program, continuing the firm&rsquo;s commitment to playing a leading role in sustainable real estate operations.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><strong><span style="color:#666666">Sources</span></strong></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[1] FT - US banks threaten to leave Mark Carney&rsquo;s green alliance over legal risks</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[2] FT - Finance groups risk being kicked out of Mark Carney-led climate coalition</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[3] Bloomberg - JPMorgan, Morgan Stanley Signal Doubts on Carney&rsquo;s Climate Group</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[4] Bloomberg - Al Gore Calls Out &lsquo;Greenwashing&rsquo; Risks as Funds Quit Green Club</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[5] </span><span style="color:#666666">丽豪半导体</span><span style="color:#666666"> - </span><span style="color:#666666">丽豪半导体完成</span><span style="color:#666666">22</span><span style="color:#666666">亿元</span><span style="color:#666666">B</span><span style="color:#666666">轮融资，打造新一代高纯晶硅产业标杆</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[6] </span><span style="color:#666666">投资界</span><span style="color:#666666"> - </span><span style="color:#666666">青海西宁，罕见诞生一个超级独角兽</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[7] Federal Reserve - Federal Reserve Board announces that six of the nation&rsquo;s largest banks will participate in a pilot climate scenario analysis exercise designed to enhance the ability of supervisors and firms to measure and manage climate-related financial risks</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[8] </span><span style="color:#666666">财新网</span><span style="color:#666666"> - </span><span style="color:#666666">德国宣布增加生物多样性资金至</span><span style="color:#666666">15</span><span style="color:#666666">亿欧元</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[9] Responsible Investor - Friday Funds: BNP AM launches first biodiversity PAB ETF </span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[10] Bloomberg - Hurricane Ian Is a Climate Disaster for the History Books</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[11] Bloomberg - Mega-Polluting Coal Plans Clash With Australia&rsquo;s Climate Goals</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[12] Bloomberg - Goldman, HSBC in Talks With Pemex on $1 Billion ESG Financing</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[13] ESG TODAY - BNP Paribas AM Appoints Jane Karen Ho as Head of Stewardship for Asia Pacific</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[14] JLL - JLL appoints Erin Meezan as Chief Sustainability Officer</span></h6>


https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/attachments/articles/1664864633460_Green Capital Weekly 3 Oct.pdf

Companies in this issue: JP Morgan (JPM.US), Morgan Stanley (MS.US), Bank of America (BAC.US), Citigroup (C.US), Wells Fargo (WFC.US), JLL (JLL.US)

October 3 | Financial institutions threaten to leave green finance alliance; One year old startup crowned unicorn

Hong Kong

<figure class="image">
<p></p>
<img alt="" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1664176568378_cheung-yin-0U2E7StbhII-unsplash.jpg/th1000" />
<figcaption>*HSBC will exclude investments in coal-fired power generation and coal mining projects from its actively-managed funds by 2040; Picture Source: Unsplash</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="" height="477" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1664176590350_ENUS.png/th1000" width="500" /></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">HSBC to abandon coal exposure no later than 2040</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The asset management arm of global banking institution HSBC is excluding investments in coal-fired power generation and coal mining projects from its actively-managed funds, with a deadline of year 2030 for EU member states and OECD countries and 2040 for all the other states. This follows HSBC AM initially filed such resolution in <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/hsbc-to-exit-coal-financing-following-engagement-with-shareholder-group/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">March 2021</a>.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">For the passively managed products tracking an index, the asset manager will ensure a fund&rsquo;s exposure to coal power and coal mining below 2.5% if the fund does not have either a Paris-aligned goal or a clear divestment pathway.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">With a stringent timeline, the policy has allowed for &ldquo;just transition&rdquo; that various stakeholders have mulled for. The asset manager will first engage with the invested firms for a transition strategy and only divest those that fail to achieve a consequential transition away from coal businesses.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Biggest sovereign investor asked net-zero goals from investees</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Norway&rsquo;s USD 1.2trillion sovereign investor unveiled a new climate action plan last week part of which requires all the companies in its portfolio of over 9,000 companies to reach net zero emissions by 2050, covering scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions. The Norges Bank Investment Management (NBIM), or oil fund will prioritise the target-setting of companies in the carbon-intensive sectors &ldquo;as a matter of urgency&rdquo; before expanding to all the companies by 2040. NBIM will also ask the companies for better disclosure.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The fund has stake in 9,338 companies spanning across 65 countries (regions) by the end of 2021, 1,305 of them in Greater China with a NOK 615bn (USD 5.9bn) in combined value, or 4.1% of its total investment value. In Greater China, the fund invests the most in Taiwan&rsquo;s chip foundry TSMC by value, followed by Tencent, Alibaba, AIA and Meituan, while by ownership, its 3.77% stake in Vipshop is the heaviest in Greater China.</p>

<figure class="image">
<p>Table: NBIM&rsquo;s investments in Greater China</p>
<img alt="" height="116" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1664176654937_NBIM ENUS.png/th1000" width="500" />
<figcaption>Source: NBIM, MioTech Research</figcaption>
</figure>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">McKinsey, BCG double down on sustainability consulting</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Last week, management consulting firm McKinsey announced to establish its Global Decarbonisation Hub and Sustainable Materials Hub.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The Global Decarbonisation Hub is set up in Huston, home to the headquarters of multiple energy companies and accounting for 43% of US crude oil production and 25% of US marketed gas production, according to the EIA. McKinsey looks to investing USD 100m in the city in the next ten years for asset decarbonisation projects, according to <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/mckinsey-to-invest-100-million-in-energy-sector-decarbonization-practice/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ESG TODAY</a>.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The Sustainable Materials Hub will aim for better transparency, decarbonisation plans and drive the commercialisation of sustainable materials to make the upstream and downstream needs aligned.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">McKinsey has also partnered tech giant Microsoft for an end-to-end solution that helps companies measure their emissions and formulate plans to reduce their carbon footprint.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Another big player in the management consulting field, Boston Consulting Group (BCG) has acquired Quantis, a sustainability transition consultancy that primarily serves companies in food &amp; beverage, cosmetics, fashion and sportswear. This deal will boost BCG&rsquo;s sustainability consulting capacity with 250 environment experts and transition specialists joining from Quantis.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">M&amp;As of sustainability consulting firms have flourished since the beginning of this year, with the most prominent ones being the Irish Accenture that has merged four sustainability/climate consultancies (Avieco, Greenfish, akzente, and Carbon Intelligence) in its public announcements.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Chinese EV startup and its battery supplier launch Hong Kong IPO</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Chinese battery maker CALB (03931.HK) will launch the initial public offering on the Stock Exchange of Hong Kong from September 23 to 28, reported <a href="https://www.caixin.com/2022-09-23/101943721.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Caixin</a>. The firm, ranking only below CATL and BYD in battery production plans to issue 265 million H-shares, each priced between HKD 38 and HKD 51. That is to say the company can raise HKD 10.1bn to HKD 13.6bn (USD 1.3bn to USD 1.7bn) from the IPO in Hong Kong.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The company may raise up to HKD 15.5bn (USD 2bn) if the over-allotment, or greenshoe option is executed.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Data from <a href="https://www.gg-lb.com/art-45273.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">GGII</a>, a think tank, shows CALB comes the third in terms of share in China&rsquo;s EV battery market. 28,207MWh of its batteries were installed in cars from January to July, most of them were sold to GAC, Xpeng, and Leapmotor.</p>

<figure class="image">
<p>Chart: Ten largest battery maker in China by total installation (from Jan to Jul 2022)</p>
<img alt="" height="468" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1664176797904_Battery ENUS.png/th1000" width="500" />
<figcaption>Source: GGII, MioTech Research</figcaption>
</figure>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Speaking of Leapmotor (09863.HK), the Zhejiang, China-based EV startup also launched its Hong Kong <a href="https://www1.hkexnews.hk/listedco/listconews/sehk/2022/0920/2022092000017.pdf" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">IPO</a> last week and is set to raise between HKD 6.2bn and HKD 8.1bn (USD 795m to USD 1bn) and HKD 9.4bn (USD 1.2bn) at maximum if both the offer size adjustment option and the over-allotment option are executed.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">This makes Leapmotor the fourth Chinese EV startup to go public in Hong Kong, following NIO, Xpeng and LI Auto. According to the <a href="https://news.stcn.com/sd/202209/t20220919_4868002.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">STCN</a>, Leapmotor has completed seven rounds of strategic funding since it was established in 2015, with investors like Sequoia China, state-owed railway equipment supplier CRRC, Shanghai Electric, as well as the Hangzhou, Zhejiang branch of China&rsquo;s state asset supervision body.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Salesforce launching carbon marketplace, Puro.Earth to pre-sell carbon credits</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Customer relationship management solution Salesforce is launching a carbon credit market dubbed &ldquo;Net Zero Marketplace&rdquo;. According to the <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/salesforce-enters-the-carbon-credit-business-11663675202?tpl=sb" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Wall Street Journal</a>, the platform, expected to be online in October will tackle the transparency and quality problems in this market. Salesforce, buying carbon credits since 2017, will offer buyers on the new platform with clarity on the projects and how they can help tackle climate change built on its own experience.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Meanwhile, Nasdaq-backed carbon credit marketplace Puro.Earth has announced to offer prepaid carbon removal certificates, or &ldquo;Pre-CORCs&rdquo; linked to early stage decarbonisation projects. According to <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/nasdaq-backed-puro-earth-launches-pre-paid-co2-removal-certificates-to-help-scale-carbon-removal-market/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ESG TODAY</a>, buyers of these certificates will be able to redeem CORCS once the carbon removal is realised and verified by a third party.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Amazon expands renewables portfolio with 71 new projects</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Last week, Amazon announced it has invested 71 new renewable energy projects to reach 379 projects across 21 countries (regions), consolidating its title as the world&rsquo;s largest corporate buyer of renewables.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Once fully in operations, these projects will generate 50,000GWh of clean energy every year, which equals the use of 4.6 million US homes. As of the end of 2021, renewables accounted for 85% of the energy use across Amazon&rsquo;s business.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">World Bank president under pressure to resign for climate change stance</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">David Malpass, the president of World Bank, avoided giving a clear answer three times when being asked whether he accepted climate change is caused by human activities at an event in New York last Tuesday. Malpass only said he was &ldquo;not a scientist&rdquo; to end it. According to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/2186a261-50ef-4250-91a7-fea0f95c9d3b" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Financial Times</a>, US and German officials and some environmental organisations were left unsatisfied with such claim and asked Malpass to resign.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Malpass attempted to compensate for what he did. In an interview with CNN last Thursday, he said it is clear that greenhouse emissions were caused by man-made sources and he was not a &ldquo;denier&rdquo;.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Malpass was appointed by former US president Donald Trump and his current term ends April 2024.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Boeing fined USD 200m over misinformation on 737 Max accidents</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Airplane manufacturer Boeing has agreed to pay USD 200m in penalty to&nbsp;</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">settle the charges by the US Securities and Exchange Commission that the company was misleading investors about two deadly accidents of its 737 Max model in 2018 and 2019.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Its former CEO Dennis Muilenburg will pay an additional penalty of USD 1m himself. Upon the 2018 accident in Indonesia, Muilenburg suggested not to mention software update in the company&rsquo;s press release on that matter, and asked employees to include the part of investigation report by the Indonesian government that &ldquo;selective highlighted&rdquo; pilot&rsquo;s misconduct and poor maintenance of the plane as reasons of the accident. He was dismissed by Boeing in December 2019.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">PwC welcomes new Global ESG Leader</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Last week, professional services firm PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) announced the appointment of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/will-jackson-moore-752933a/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Will Jackson-Moore</a> as its Global ESG Leader. According to his LinkedIn profile, Jackson-Moore has been working in PwC since leaving university in 1990. His latest role before this appointment was Global Private Equity, Real Assets and Sovereign Funds Leader.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">HSBC adds three new senior hires in sustainability unit</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">According to Reuters, HSBC has announced three new hires to its sustainability business:</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/justin-wu-5a45527/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Justin Wu</a> will be the bank&rsquo;s Co- Head of Climate Change Asia Pacific. Wu has worked in Bloomberg New Energy Finance (BNEF) for over 15 years, most recently as Head of Asia Pacific. He will be based in Tokyo before relocating to Hong Kong in mid-2023.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/milosjardin/?originalSubdomain=uk" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Milo Sjardin</a> will be Managing Director, Head of Climate Analytics, who has worked in Bloomberg LP and its affiliate BNEF for over 15 years, most recently as the Director of Research at Bloomberg Intelligence.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/susannahf-brockholes/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Susannah Fitzherbert-Brockholes</a> will be Director of Sustainable Finance. Prior to this appointment, Fitzherbert-Brockholes worked in PwC for nearly ten years, most recently as Assistant Director. During that time, she spent two years in the Climate and Development Knowledge Network (CDKN) led by PwC.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><strong><span style="color:#666666">Sources</span></strong></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[1] ESG TODAY - HSBC to Exit Coal Investments</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[2] ESG TODAY - Norway&rsquo;s $1.2 Trillion Oil Fund Asks all Portfolio Companies to Set Net Zero Goals</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[3] ESG TODAY - McKinsey to Invest $100 Million in Energy Sector Decarbonization Practice</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[4] ESG TODAY - McKinsey, Microsoft Partner on End-to-End Decarbonization Solution</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[5] ESG TODAY - BCG Acquires Sustainability Transformation Consultancy Quantis</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[6] </span><span style="color:#666666">财新网 - 中创新航港股上市引15基石投资者 拟最高募资155亿港元</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[7] </span><span style="color:#666666">零跑汽车, 披露易 - 浙江零跑科技股份有限公司 全球發售</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[8] </span><span style="color:#666666">证券时报 - 零跑汽车港交所递表，抢占新势力第4张门票？背后VC/PE机构阵容豪华</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[9] WSJ - Salesforce Enters the Carbon-Credit Business</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[10] ESG TODAY - Nasdaq-backed Puro.Earth Launches Pre-Paid CO2 Removal Certificates to Help Scale Carbon Removal Market</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[11] Amazon - Amazon expands its renewable energy projects with firsts in Brazil, India, and Poland</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[12] FT - World Bank head under pressure to quit over climate change doubts</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[13] FT - Boeing to pay $200mn penalty over misleading investors about 737 Max</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[14] ESG TODAY - PwC Appoints Will Jackson-Moore as Global ESG Leader, Anticipates 10x ESG Revenue Growth</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[15] Reuters - HSBC hires Justin Wu as Asia-Pacific co-head of climate change - memo</span></h6>


Companies in this issue: HSBC (00005.HK), Microsoft (MSFT.US), CALB (03931.HK), Leapmotor (09863.HK), Salesforce (CRM.US), Amazon (AMZN.US), Boeing (BA.US)

Green Capital Weekly Sep 26 | HSBC to abandon coal exposure; NBIM aims net-zero portfolio

https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/attachments/articles/1663738274458_Green Capital Weekly 19 Sep.pdf

Companies in this issue: DBS (D05.SG), JP Morgan (JPM.US), Alphabet (GOOG.US), Meta (META.US), Alibaba (9988.HK), Tencent (0700.HK), Shell (SHEL.LN), State Street (STT.US)

Green Capital Weekly Sep 19 | Patagonia founder gives the company away to save planet; DBS announced sectoral decarbonisation goals

<figure class="image">
<p></p>
<img alt="" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1663125620657_Cover.png/th1000" />
<figcaption>Global energy sector is employing more people than pre-pandemic times; Picture Source: IEA</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<p><img alt="" height="477" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1663125668505_ENUS.png/th1000" width="500" /></p>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><strong><span style="color:#58c6a8">Energy sector is employing more people now than pre-pandemic times</span></strong></h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Hiring of the global energy sector has surpassed the pre-pandemic level. The global energy sector employed over 65 million people in 2019, the Paris-based International Energy Agency (IEA) said in its latest &ldquo;<a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/world-energy-employment" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">World Energy Employment</a>&rdquo;.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Based on the evidence available, the IEA estimates the energy sector has employed more people in 2021 than 2019. Clean energy, which has seen strong growth due to global net-zero pledges, <strong>accounts for more than 50% of the total energy sector employment</strong>.</p>

<figure class="image">
<p>Chart: Energy employment in fossil fuel and clean energy sectors</p>
<img alt="" height="212" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1663125255511_图片1.png/th1000" width="500" />
<figcaption>Source: IEA; The 2020 data was difficult to assess due to the COVID-19 pandemic</figcaption>
</figure>

<p>&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#58c6a8"><strong>BlackRock fought back climate activism claims, while losing its dominance status in US ETF market</strong></span></h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">BlackRock defends itself against the climate activism claims of US politicians. In a letter sent to the Attorney General of 19 US states, its Head of External Affairs Dalia Blass said the claims are based on &ldquo;misconceptions&rdquo;. According to <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/blackrock-strikes-back-against-climate-activism-claims/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ESG TODAY</a>, BlackRock also warns of the negative impacts of politicians&rsquo; agenda in preventing investors from the compelling investment opportunities with higher returns.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The investment giant is losing its dominance role in the US ETF market as its rival Vanguard rapidly catching up and shortening the gap in total assets. According to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/a60f9c6a-0974-4a7b-a762-b19c2473d2c4" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Financial Times</a>, Vanguard has USD 1.84tr of US ETF assets under management by the end of August, closing in on BlackRock&rsquo;s iShares with USD 2.21tr under management in US ETF products. Data shows that Vanguard has been attracting more investments to ETF products than BlackRock ever since 2020.</p>

<figure class="image">
<p>Chart: Inflows into US ETF products of Vanguard and BlackRock (USD bn)</p>
<img alt="" height="358" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1663125319521_图片2.png/th1000" width="500" />
<figcaption>Source: The Financial Times</figcaption>
</figure>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><strong><span style="color:#58c6a8">European governments unveil energy security plan for the &ldquo;coldest winter&rdquo;</span></strong>&nbsp;</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The European Commission encourages its member states to apply price caps on wholesale gas. According to <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/49552516-0788-46a1-9c0a-d906fd8d6388" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Financial Times</a>, the EU gives two options: one is a price cap on all gas imports from Russia and the other is a price cap system allow the cap to differ across EU countries dependent on their energy mix.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">The plan is facing mixed responses within the bloc. Governments including Italy, Poland and Greece do not support the plan and some said that this move might prompt Russia to completely cut supplies to Europe.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Late last month, the Russian operator has halted the gas flows to Europe via Nord Stream 1 pipeline, which the Kremlin later said will not resume in full until the &ldquo;collective west&rdquo; sanctions against Russia are lifted.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Brussels is also considering capping the revenue of companies that generate electricity power from renewables, nuclear and lignite within EUR 200 per MWh. Ursula von der Leyen, the President of the European Commission said these companies are making &ldquo;enormous revenues&rdquo; from the energy crisis being less affected by the soaring gas prices.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Britain&rsquo;s new Prime Minister Liz Truss has made tackling the energy problem her priority by announcing a GBP 150bn (USD 176bn) energy plan days after her appointment. The plan includes a &ldquo;energy price guarantee&rdquo; to limit average annual household bills to GBP 2,500 (USD 2,930) over the next two years, as reported by <a href="https://www.ft.com/content/984129f9-a133-468b-bc38-e8c4ec7386d6" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">the Financial Times</a>.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><strong><span style="color:#58c6a8">Corporations across the G7 failed to be Paris-aligned</span></strong></h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">In its latest study, management consultancy Oliver Wyman found that corporations&rsquo; emissions reduction targets in the G7 countries will only limit the global average temperature increase to 2.7&deg;C above pre-industrial levels, far from meeting the Paris Agreement&rsquo;s 1.5&deg;C ambition.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Meanwhile, Australia that has been lacking climate ambitions when the other regions like the EU were moving fast is making progress. According to <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/australias-climate-targets-enshrined-into-law/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ESG TODAY</a>, the Australian Senate approved the Climate Bill 2022 last Thursday, formally legislating the country&rsquo;s emissions targets. The targets, initially proposed by the new government under Prime Minister Anthony Albanese in July aims to reduce greenhouse gas emissions by 43% by 2030 compared to 2005 levels and reach net-zero by 2050.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><strong><span style="color:#58c6a8">Iberdrola Commits EUR 3bn investment for Australian energy transition</span></strong>&nbsp;</h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Spain-headquartered global energy and electricity provider Iberdrola has announced a new commitment to invest EUR 2 to 3bn in Australia to accelerate the its transition to renewable energy and boost its capacity in the country to 4GW.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><strong><span style="color:#58c6a8">NIO delivered fewer cars in Q2 but earned more</span></strong></h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">China&rsquo;s electric car start-up NIO published its latest quarterly report on Sep 7. According to <a href="https://www.caixin.com/2022-09-08/101938597.html" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Caixin</a>, the carmaker delivered 25,059 cars in the second quarter, up by 14.4% YoY while down by 2.8% compared to the first quarter. Despite a drop in deliveries, high-priced cars have boosted its revenue to RMB 10.3bn (USD 1.5bn), up by 21.8% YoY and 3.9% QoQ.</p>

<figure class="image">
<p>Chart: Q2 revenue of NIO, Xpeng and LI Auto (RMB bn)</p>
<img alt="" height="320" src="https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/undefined1663125413956_NIO.png/th1000" width="500" />
<figcaption>Source: Caxin, MioTech Research</figcaption>
</figure>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#58c6a8"><strong>Less than one third of firms disclosed green revenue</strong></span></h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">According to <a href="https://www.responsible-investor.com/ftse-less-than-a-third-of-corporates-disclose-green-revenues-globally/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Responsible Investor</a>, data from FTSE Russell shows that less than one third of the corporations globally have disclosed their green revenues. According to FTSE Russell, Asia Pacific topped global disclosure rates by around two percentage points at 31%, followed by Europe at 29% percent and America at 28%. Middle East and Africa trailed other regions with a reporting rate of 27%.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h1 class="editor-title1" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><strong><span style="color:#58c6a8">Connecting workplace: Barclays, JPM, Franklin Templeton</span></strong></h1>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Barclays has announced the appointment of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/daniel--hanna/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Daniel Hanna</a> into its Corporate and Investment Bank division as Global Head of Sustainable Finance, based in London. According to <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/barclays-appoints-daniel-hanna-as-global-head-of-sustainable-finance-for-cib/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ESG TODAY</a>, Hanna joins Barclays from Standard Chartered, where he worked for 13 years, most recently as Global Head of Sustainable Finance. Hanna states on its LinkedIn profile that he is currently on gardening leave at Standard Chartered.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">JP Morgan Chase Commercial Banking has announced the appointment of <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/ericscottcohen/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Eric Cohen</a> as the head of its green economy team, ESG TODAY <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/jpmorgan-chase-commercial-banking-appoints-eric-cohen-to-lead-green-economy-banking-team/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">reported</a>. He will lead the team in driving the bank&rsquo;s strategy for serving companies advancing decarbonisation through transformative technologies. Prior to this appointment, Cohen worked in Fifth Third Bank for more than 12 years. His most recent role in the bank was Managing Director, Renewable Energy Finance.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Investment management giant Franklin Templeton has recruited <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/in/jeanmarcpont/?originalSubdomain=fr" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">Jean-Marc Pont</a> as its Head of Sustainable and Institutional Product for the EMEA region. According to <a href="https://www.esgtoday.com/franklin-templeton-appoints-jean-marc-pont-to-lead-sustainable-product-strategy/" style="color:#0563c1; text-decoration:underline">ESG TODAY</a>, Pont&rsquo;s last role was a Senior Investment Specialist at Generali Investments.</p>

<p style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">&nbsp;</p>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><strong><span style="color:#666666">Sources</span></strong></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[1] Edie - Global energy jobs surpass pre-pandemic levels, driven by a clean energy surge</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[2] BlackRock - BlackRock Strikes Back Against Climate Activism Claims</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[3] FT - Vanguard closes in on BlackRock in $6.6tn US ETF market</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[4] FT - Brussels pushes for EU-wide caps on gas price</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[5] FT - EU spars over proposal to cap Russian gas prices</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[6] FT - Russia shuts down Nord Stream gas pipeline to Europe</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[7] FT - Russia switches off Europe&rsquo;s main gas pipeline until sanctions are lifted</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[8] Edie - EU plans &lsquo;revenue cap&rsquo; on power firms, mandatory electricity savings at peak hours</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6"><span style="background-color:white"><span style="color:#666666">[9] FT - Liz Truss unveils &pound;150bn UK energy plan but limits business support</span></span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[10] ESG TODAY - Corporate Emissions Targets Across All G7 Countries Fall Short of Global Climate Goals: Report</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[11] ESG TODAY - Australia&rsquo;s Climate Targets Enshrined into Law</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[12] ESG TODAY - Iberdrola Commits to Invest up to &euro;3 Billion in Australian Energy Transition</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[13] Eco-Business - Chinese companies accused of discharging mercury, cyanide into Cameroon rivers</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[14] </span><span style="color:#666666">财新网 -蔚来汽车二季度交付量环比下滑 新车型产能受关注</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[15] Responsible Investor - FTSE Russell: Less than a third of corporates disclose green revenues globally</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[16] ESG TODAY - Barclays Appoints Daniel Hanna as Global Head of Sustainable Finance for CIB</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[17] ESG TODAY - JPMorgan Chase Commercial Banking Appoints Eric Cohen to Lead Green Economy Team</span></h6>

<h6 class="editor-title6" style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm"><span style="color:#666666">[18] ESG TODAY - Franklin Templeton Appoints Jean-Marc Pont to Lead Sustainable Product Strategy</span></h6>


https://resources.miotech.com/static/landing-page/system/attachments/articles/1663136237322_Green Capital Weekly 13 Sep.pdf

Companies in this issue: BlackRock (BLK.US), Iberdrola (IBE.SM), NIO (9866.HK), Barclays (BCS.US), JPMorgan Chase (JPM.US), Franklin Templeton (BEN.US)

Green Capital Weekly Sep 13 | Global energy sector is employing more people than pre-pandemic times; Less than one third of firms disclosed green revenue

<h2 dir="ltr"><br />
Please introduce Vigeo Eiris and how the company is promoting responsible and sustainable investment in the finance industry.</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
<a href="http://www.vigeo-eiris.com/">Vigeo Eiris</a> is an international provider of environmental, social and governance (ESG) research and services for asset managers, investors and for listed and unlisted issuers. We undertake risk assessments and evaluate the level of integration of sustainability factors within organisations&rsquo; strategies and operations.<br />
<br />
Vigeo Eiris offers a wide and exclusive suite of research and ratings products and services on sustainability risks and performance. Our products support investors&rsquo; decision-making through a sustainable and ethical investment approach (including ratings, databases, sector analyses, portfolio analyses, structured products, indices and more). Vigeo Eiris obtained ISO 9001: 2015 certification for its processes relating to methodology, rating, sale and delivery of its data to all types of investors.<br />
<br />
With a team of more than 240 experts of 28 different nationalities, Vigeo Eiris is present in Paris, London, Brussels, Casablanca, Hong Kong, Milan, Montreal, New York, Rabat, Santiago and Stockholm. The Vigeo Eiris Global Network, comprising 4 exclusive research partners, is present in Brazil, Germany, Israel and Japan.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">We&rsquo;re currently seeing pressure for firms to integrate ESG strategies into investment decisions, why the sudden push/trend?<br />
&nbsp;</h2>

<p dir="ltr">Firms are facing growing expectations from their stakeholders to account for their willingness and capacity to act responsibly, to reduce their negative externality and to contribute positively to sustainability. COP 21 was a wake-up call for the world in 2015. The finance industry reacted swiftly and started to initiate a transition into a more sustainable and green economy, particularly in the face of the current climate emergency. At this stage, most of the world&#39;s leading corporations declare having embraced the 17 Sustainable Development Goals, to which virtually all UN countries have committed.&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">The recent acceleration to enshrine ESG considerations into investment decisions stems from investors&rsquo; fiduciary duty (e.g. UNEPFI). In addition, there are growing initiatives to demonstrate ESG considerations at international and national levels (PRI, Global Compact, SDGs, Montreal Carbon Pledge, French Law for Energy Transition&hellip;) and more and more concern about the threats of short-termism on company performance, investment returns and market behaviour.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Moreover, it is now recognized that ESG risks can have a meaningful financial impact: it is recognised that strong ESG performance can reduce capital costs as well as enhancing an assets&rsquo; value and improving reputation, human capital, operational efficiency and legal security.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Going forward, ESG analysis will have an ever-greater impact on investment decisions, while being a key driver of the transition to a sustainable economy.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What do you think of the implementation rates in Asia from your perspective?<br />
&nbsp;</h2>

<p dir="ltr">Asian investors have started more recently to integrate ESG factors into investment decisions, but most countries are now moving fast in this direction via regulation requirements and at the request of large asset owners to select ESG-driven asset managers. Focus in Asia and especially China and HK are more on environmental issues than Social or Governance.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">We see policy taking the lead in supporting ESG initiatives, in your opinion, how important is it that asset management firms follow suit?</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
All stakeholders have a role to play to be able to achieve ambitious climate targets.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Regulators have a role to play in encouraging companies to integrate ESG metrics more systematically into annual accounting and reporting documents, with the same principles of standardisation, oversight, and auditing which apply to purely financial metrics.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Investors have a role to play by requiring companies to demonstrate clear and transparent sustainable strategies and reporting to be able to assess a company&rsquo;s level of ESG engagement.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">How does Vigeo Eiris help financial institutions achieve their ESG goals?</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
Vigeo Eiris have a wide range of products to help investors, from assessing their ESG strategy to providing data for ESG integration. We also provide tools so investors can define and implement their own customised strategies and report on the impact of their portfolios. Integration of ESG into passive management is increasingly common, with a growing number of thematic or sectorial indices that are based on ESG data from providers such as Vigeo Eiris. We provide a very creative range of indices that gather the most promising issuers on hundreds of ESG topics and indicators.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">Vigeo Eiris also has Controversy database, could you please tell me more?</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
Vigeo Eiris&rsquo;s controversy database provides a documented and norms-based opinion in real time on companies facing allegations in order to allow financial institutions and investors to manage their risk exposure and take appropriate investment decisions.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The controversy database is continuously screening and qualifying controversies through three factors: severity, frequency and reactiveness of the company.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Our opinion assesses a company&rsquo;s capacity to manage controversies. It could be lowered when the company faces controversies relating to fundamental issues, such as a considerably adverse impact on the interests of a given company and its stakeholders, without the company permanently being the focus of reactive, reparative or remediative measures. The more the company is exposed to a significant number of controversies, the more our opinion will be altered.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What are the current challenges facing financial institutions from adopting substantial ESG practices as opposed to something to check off the list.</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
The greatest challenge is their capacity to gather skills and improve their methods so they&rsquo;re aligned with mainstream ESG understanding and can incorporate adequate measurements in their models.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">Your thoughts on ESG Data, its value and its reliability?</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
Vigeo Eiris has developed a strong methodology with 17 years of history which is thorough, reliable and impartial.<br />
<br />
Our methodology is consistent, and is supervised by an independent scientific committee that supports back-testing and trend management. The ratings are consistent and comparable, and we try to have a high level of interaction with rated companies to access the most relevant information.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What are the main ESG trends that Vigeo Eiris is seeing?</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
One of the main trends we&rsquo;re seeing is a need to systematically explore sustainability stakes, assess their related risks and opportunities, and explain the weight devoted to ESG factors in investment decisions.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What is Vigeo Eiris currently excited about?</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
Vigeo Eiris is continuously developing new products to collaborate with investors and help them integrate ESG factors in line with their fiduciary duty.</p>

<p dir="ltr">Our products range from a historical negative screening tool to positive impact solutions and services.<br />
<br />
A recent development is Sustainable Goods &amp; Services (SGS). SGS research assesses the extent of corporate involvement in products and services that contribute to the achievement of the UN&rsquo;s Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). It addresses the lack of data on SDG performance and makes it easy for investors to understand. We provide a positive screening to identify business activities devoted to sustainable solutions, complementary to the traditional ESG approach.<br />
&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">Will not being sustainable cost a firm going into the future?</h2>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
Not being sustainable is a direct threat for a given corporation, notably in terms of its brand, attractiveness, capacity to innovate, economic performance, and even existence.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p><br />
<br />
<em>Juliette Macresy took charge of Vigeo Eiris Hong Kong office in September 2017, becoming Head of Greater China and South East Asian markets. She is already working with banks, investors, corporates and international organisations in the region on Green &amp; Sustainable bonds and its derivatives products while marketing Vigeo Eiris ESG research.</em></p>


In this article, we speak to Juliette Macresy, Head of Vigeo Eiris’ Greater China and South East Asian markets, on the growing trend of sustainable investing in Asia and why "not being sustainable is a direct threat for a given corporation".

Why ESG Matters When it Comes to Investing

<h2 dir="ltr">We&rsquo;re currently seeing pressure for financial institutions to integrate ESG strategies into investment decisions, why the sudden push/trend?</h2>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">ESG, or Sustainable investing (&quot;SI&quot;), has developed into a financial megatrend in recent years. Originally followed primarily by professional, institutional investors, it sees now wide adoption from private investors, especially in Europe and the USA, with a significantly growing number of Asian investors adopting SI approaches.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">At UBS, we have made the decision early on, to help shape the sustainable investing landscape and be at the forefront of bringing exciting investment solutions to client which look beyond the pure return maximization but take into account how these returns are being generated.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">We&rsquo;re using our expertise, knowledge and connections to drive change that matters. Innovative finance can be good for society, good for the environment, and give good returns. In fact,we think they all go hand in hand. Across our private and institutional businesses, we manage USD 313bn in dedicated sustainable investing strategies.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What does this say about the new generation of investors? Are they driven by performance or principals?</h2>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Our clients have various motivations to follow a sustainable investing approach. But some of the key triggers we see in liquid strategies are that they understand that integrating ESG as a factor for better informed investment decisions which can lead to superior investment outcomes over time as well as a trend to &quot;Investing for the next generation&quot; by building an investment portfolio which helps to leave the planet intact for their next generation.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">In private markets impact investing strategies, we clearly also see clients investing who are keen to build a long-term portfolio which allows them to generate positive impact on society through their investments, looking beyond just the targeted market-rate returns.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Furthermore, many of the younger generation show a particular affinity for incorporating sustainability criteria in their consumption and investment behavior. They increasingly seek innovative means by which they can tackle problems of social inequality, as technology and extreme connectivity throw light on issues across the globe to more people. We see this reflected in strong demand for our longer term impact investing solutions which aim to create positive social and environmental impact as well as significantly increasing allocations to invest into leading innovators and companies contributing to a low carbon economy and a more sustainable future.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What do you think of the SI adoption rates in Asia?</h2>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Awareness and adoption of sustainable investing has grown significantly among our clients in recent years.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Based on our recent investor survey &quot;Investor Watch &ndash; Return on Values&quot;, for which we interviewed 5,500 investors across ten countries/regions, including Hong Kong &amp; China, we see strong buy-in for sustainable investing.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">In Hong Kong, 41% of investors expect sustainable investments to become the new standard in 10 years. In China, 74% of investors make that statement. At the same time, 50% of Hong Kong investors believe sustainable investments would deliver better returns than traditional investments.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">We see policy taking the lead in supporting ESG initiatives, in your opinion, how important is it that financial institutions follow suit?</h2>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">We are on a journey to educating our clients and moving the industry towards a sustainable one. We are confident that with better understanding of sustainable investing and more available offerings, Sustainable Investing will become the mainstream approach for investors in the years to come.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">What ESG strategies has UBS adopted?</h2>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Options for SI investments have expanded rapidly in recent years.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">UBS has been at the forefront of bringing sustainable investment solutions to our clients here in the region. We currently offer our clients access to more than two dozen active and passive funds with sustainable investing focus, a universe which is growing constantly.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Most notable are our mandate and fund solutions based on our unique 100% sustainable Strategic Asset Allocation which we introduced in April last year. It is the first time that private clients can access a 100% sustainable cross-asset portfolio, implementing ESG across all liquid equities and bonds strategies, allowing them to invest in a portfolio based on their personal risk and return expectations. The solutions contain innovative content such as ESG engagement strategies or World Bank bonds and Green Bonds with multiple risk profiles to choose from, yet aim to deliver full market-rate returns for investors.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Another area in which we have seen strong client pick-up is Impact Investing. In 2017, UBS has committed to allocate USD 5bn into impact investments in support of addressing the UN Sustainable Development Goals.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">&nbsp;What is UBS is excited about when it comes to SI?</h2>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">I am really excited about our very comprehensive services we can offer our clients on sustainability. Let me specifically pick two which I am really excited about:</p>

<p dir="ltr">With the launch of our innovative 100% sustainable investing portfolios last year, we were able to change the way many of our investors in the region think about their investments and truly work on raising awareness of how personal values and competitive financial returns are not mutually exclusive. In fact, we think they go hand in hand. We have raised over USD 600 million in APAC, and globally over USD 6 billion in this short period of time, showing the success of this offering in delivering performance and meeting clients&rsquo; values.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Looking at longer term investments &ndash; impact investing &ndash; we are continuously bringing exciting opportunities to our clients. For example, we have raised USD 470m for our UBS Oncology Impact Fund, an early stage private equity fund focusing on investments in the development of cancer therapeutics in order to achieve attractive financial returns, while making a positive global impact helping to extend and improve the lives cancer patients, focusing on curing certain forms of cancer. USD 275m was committed by our investors here in APAC.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<h2 dir="ltr">Will not having an ESG approach cost a financial institution going into the future?</h2>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">I absolutely believe that ESG will become a core component of the investment process. There is strong evidence today, that SI strategies deliver equal to better investment performance over time compared to traditional investment approaches.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Let me refer to a recent large-scale institutional investor survey by Responsible Investor and UBS. 48% of respondents who are already &#39;doing ESG&#39; are doing so because they expect a positive impact on financial performance, and a further 48% of &#39;adopters&#39; are considering the integration of ESG into the investment process for the same reason.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">Additionally, and interesting to note, a majority of European institutional asset owner respondents predict that key environmental factors (climate crisis, biodiversity loss) will be more material to their investments in the next five years than financial factors.&nbsp;&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr"><br />
<em>Mario Knoepfel, Head Sustainable &amp; Impact Investing Advisory, Investment Platforms and Solutions, Asia Pacific, UBS Wealth Management. </em><br />
&nbsp;</p>


Get a free deep dive into whether the world's asset owners are thinking long-term, sustainable finance.

​​​​​​​Download the "Investor Watch – Return on Values" Survey by Responsible Investor and UBS.

http://miotech-landingpage-images.oss-cn-shanghai.aliyuncs.com/files/1565578041344_Responsible-investor-ubs-esg-do-you-or-dont-you.pdf

In this article, MioTech speaks with Mario Knoepfel, Head Sustainable & Impact Investing Advisory, Investment Platforms and Solutions, Asia Pacific at UBS Wealth Management on the growing trend of sustainable investing in Asia and his belief that it can bring equal to better investment performance over time.

UBS: Sustainable Investing to Become Core Investing Component

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">1. What is a data culture?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">A data culture is shaping an organization to prioritize data an important variable in decision making. This requires training, education, and perhaps most importantly, building relationships with each business unit to determine which metrics will drive their decision making.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">2. Why is it increasingly important to build a strong data culture within a company?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">As the South China Morning Post goes full speed ahead in its digital transformation, one of the key challenges was to accelerate operational efficiency. While the data team has been built from the ground up in a little over 18 months, one of its core reasons for existence is to help every part of the business get better at one they do. We&rsquo;ve established a culture of OKRs, Objective and Key Results which empowers each department and team to align with company level goals and have specific, measurable, actionable, relevant, and time-bound (SMART) goals.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A data-driven culture helps everyone within the company to have a consistent pulse on how they&rsquo;re tracking to these individual, team, department, and company goals. My team checks in monthly on each of their quarterly goals which build accountability and transparency. If we&rsquo;re falling behind, people are better able to ask for help or collaborate with other individuals or teams on shared interests or initiatives.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">3. What specific benefits/examples can you cite where data has significantly added value, editorially/operationally etc. ? What pain points did having data solve?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">In order to build automated digital metrics reporting and analysis, the team designed, constructed and implemented a centralized data warehouse and ETL processes. This enabled the aggregation of data from over 40 disparate data platforms. We also trained non-technical team members to use SQL and other data processing tools to automate workflows and report generation processes freeing up over 75% of one headcount. This, in turn, enabled a recalibrated focus on developing insights, recommendations, and action items, eradicating time-consuming and tedious report creation.</p>

<p dir="ltr">In order to ensure this transformative process was being leveraged across the organization, we scaled cross-functional business intelligence. Moreover, the team also consolidated redundant tools and platforms, resulting in the elimination of duplicated manpower, resources, and operational costs.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">4. What active steps do you think is important for a company to take in order to build a good data culture? (education etc)</p>
</blockquote>

<p>Perhaps the most critical component of driving business process efficiency is training, educating and evangelizing why data matters. The story-telling process requires the cross-pollination of data tools and culture to shift decision making from intuition to data-driven. Weekly online editorial meetings, slack, and email alerts for under-performing / over-performing content, daily insight emails summarizing wins/losses, and dynamic TV dashboards all contribute to driving this change. This helps to form rhythms encouraging data reliance on real-time reporting. Key performance indicators (KPIs) enable teams to better track progress and have increased accountability for targets; dozens of training workshops were held to ramp up staff on tools, features and tie data relevance into each individual&#39;s&rsquo; day-to-day. As the organization continues to transform, we&rsquo;re encouraged albeit kept quite busy by the 10x increase of data requests over the past 3 months.</p>

<p dir="ltr">With better tools and more responsive ad-hoc analysis via Tableau, BigQuery and Airflow, we&rsquo;re building a stronger data culture at SCMP, empowering business leaders and managers to access real-time data and make more powerful data-informed decisions.</p>

<p dir="ltr">We believe that creating a transformative culture starts with investing in our people. The impact was particularly apparent in our data-driven transformation, democratizing data via various tools within the organization, empowering our teams to make smarter decisions. Measuring the impact of those choices gives us the agility to adapt quickly when necessary. With the advent of these initiatives around data storage, centralization, and automation, we&#39;ve seen massive gains in efficiency, growth in our core metrics (traffic, revenue) and a rising tide of excitement, morale and engagement at the South China Morning Post.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">5. What barriers did you face building a data culture? (Mindset? Trust? Hiring?) How did you overcome it?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">This is very similar to question 4 and I think we answered most of it there already.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">6. Should data drive decisions? What&#39;s the right balance?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>While data is not usually the sole variable in driving a decision, it should play a role in most decisions. I prefer to call this data informed decisions. Throughout the course of the past two years, we&rsquo;ve seen an increasing trend in business leaders asking for and considering the data piece before jumping to conclusions or making decisions which is a big step from the &ldquo;gut-feeling&rdquo; or &ldquo;intuitive&rdquo; driven decisions that were more the norm previously.</p>

<p dir="ltr">A good example of this is A/B testing headlines in the newsroom. Sometimes editors have differing opinions on which headline works and which doesn&rsquo;t, the best way is to put it in front of our users and see which one they click on the most, then regardless of which one we might like, we know what works and what doesn&rsquo;t. The US-China trade war content has been a hot topic as of late and several headlines were written in the British style with Trade Row (Row as in a fight or brawl). However, since our audience is largely coming from the US now, Trade War picked up much more traction as Americans generally read &ldquo;row&rdquo; as &ldquo;row, row, row your boat&rdquo; not as &ldquo;fight&rdquo;.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">7. How readily available should this data be to employees? How do you ensure that the data is actionable?</p>
</blockquote>

<p>In an ideal data world, each and every employee should have access to the data they need to do their job. Naturally, security protocols need to be in place to ensure that individuals don&rsquo;t have access to data that may be sensitive (e.g. PII - personally identifiable information) or data they don&rsquo;t need access to because it&rsquo;s irrelevant to their job.</p>

<p>Actions are typically tied to decisions. Spending time with the teams to understand their workflows, projects, and initiatives enable us to put metrics and KPIs in front of them that help them to make decisions and therefore are actionable. It&rsquo;s also an iterative process, if something is no longer useful or we can make it better, we continuously seek to improve how our customers are engaging with the data.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">8. What would be in your opinion, the best data culture?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">In many ways, all of the things we just talked about. Aspirationally, an environment where everyone has the knowledge and ability to access to the data they need. Each person across the company should understand the value of data to their team as well as their individual work and be able to have self-serve access to actionable data to execute on their day to day work. Data tools should be largely automated and the data team&rsquo;s focus should primarily be focused on generating insights, enhancing recommendations, and building tools that employ AI, ML, and algorithms that help drive the business onwards and upwards.</p>


In this article, MioTech speaks with Korey Lee, Head of Data at SCMP on the effective ways on building a strong data culture from scratch.

MioTalk X Korey Lee: Building a Culture Around Data

Head of Data, South China Morning Post

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">Please tell me what your &ldquo;Biased Bots&rdquo; research paper was about.</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">Fundamentally, I want to understand cognition and the evolution of cognition. Since our paper came out, it&#39;s been evident that people are surprised that machines can be biased. They assume machines are necessarily neutral and objective, which is in some sense true -- in the sense that there is no machine perspective or ethics. &nbsp;But to the extent an artefact is an element of our culture, it will always reflect our bias.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://miotech-landingpage-images.oss-cn-shanghai.aliyuncs.com/images/1544438516463_1543225429797_image4.png/th1000" style="height:auto; max-width:100%; width:auto" /></p>

<p dir="ltr"><em>Source: Dilbert</em></p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">I saw that implicit bias could be something that was a part of culture and that was fascinating to me. Culture can push you into a place, a way of thinking.</p>

<p>People don&#39;t usually think that implicit biases are a part of what a word means or how we use words, but our research shows they are. This is hugely important, because it tells us all kinds of things about how we use language, how we learn prejudice, how we learn language, how we evolved language. All understanding is being created and communicated this way and I don&rsquo;t think a lot of other people see how incredibly important it is. This gives us some important insight into why our brains work the way they do and what that means about how we should build AI.</p>

<blockquote>
<p>&quot;It&rsquo;s important that we understand what our machines are communicating through us, that the meaning comes from us.&quot;</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">Our research paper sets out to show that applying machine learning to ordinary human language results in human-like semantic biases. It&rsquo;s important that we understand what our machines are communicating through us, that the meaning comes from us.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">This transference of inherent bias to AI technology, how does this occur?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">Computation is a physical process. It takes time, energy, and space. &nbsp;Therefore it is resource constrained. This is true whether you are talking about natural or artificial intelligence. From a computational perspective there&#39;s little difference between these. The reason AI is making so much progress right now is because we&#39;ve figured out how to transfer and represent what&#39;s already been computed by our culture or our biology into AI. A lot of people are saying this is showing that AI is prejudiced. No. This is showing we&rsquo;re prejudiced and that AI is learning that prejudice the same way. That&#39;s the first source of AI bias: unintentionally uploading the implicit human biases that pervade our culture.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">The Implicit Association Test that you utilize for this research paper, what is this test?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">The test measures response times (in milliseconds) by humans when asked to pair word concepts displayed on a computer screen.</p>

<p dir="ltr">For example in a previous study, flower types, like &quot;rose&quot; and &quot;daisy,&quot; and insects like &quot;ant&quot; and &quot;moth.&quot; were to be paired with words with pleasant and unpleasant connotations, like &quot;caress&quot; and &quot;love,&quot; or &quot;filth&quot; and &quot;ugly.&quot; People were more quick to associate the flowers with pleasant words, and the insects with unpleasant terms.</p>

<p dir="ltr">To avoid controversy, we only replicated known biases that had been done by psychologists before, as measured by the Implicit Association Test. We utilized a purely statistical machine-learning model called &ldquo;word embedding&rdquo;, which is what computers are currently using to interpret speech and text, trained on a huge sample of internet content containing 840 billion words. The algorithm can showcase the co-occurrence statistics of words in, say, a 10-word window of text. Words that often appear in the same contexts (of other words) have a more similar meaning than those words that seldom do.</p>

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center"><img src="http://miotech-landingpage-images.oss-cn-shanghai.aliyuncs.com/images/1544438527919_1543225966867_image3.png/th1000" style="height:auto; max-width:100%; width:auto" /></p>

<p dir="ltr" style="text-align:center"><em>Source: <a href="https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/how_it_works.png">https://imgs.xkcd.com/comics/how_it_works.png</a></em></p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">The team examined for example, words of profession like &ldquo;programmer, engineer, scientist&rdquo; and &ldquo;nurse, teacher, librarian&rdquo; alongside attribute words, such as men&rsquo;s or women&rsquo;s names to see if the common views humans consciously or unconsciously possess are also easily acquired by algorithms.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">Could you give me an example of human bias that you found?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">Our machine learning experiment not only confirmed the word biases associated with flowers or bugs, but also found more troubling evidence of implicit biases related to gender and race.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The machine learning model found that women&rsquo;s names were more associated with arts and humanities vocations and with words like &ldquo;parents&rdquo; and &ldquo;wedding&rdquo;. On the other hand, men&rsquo;s names were linked closely with math and engineering professions and words like &ldquo;professional&rdquo; and &ldquo;salary&rdquo;.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://miotech-landingpage-images.oss-cn-shanghai.aliyuncs.com/images/1544438517727_1543226132556_image2.png/th1000" style="height:auto; max-width:100%; width:auto" /></p>

<p dir="ltr"><em>Source: Dilbert.com</em></p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">A previous experiment showed that CVs with European American names were 50% more likely to get offered an interview from a job application than CVs with African American names were, despite those CVs being otherwise identical.</p>

<p dir="ltr">And if you still don&rsquo;t believe that there is racism associated with people&rsquo;s names, we found out through our A.I. system that European American names are more likely to be associated with positive words like &ldquo;gift&rdquo; or &ldquo;happy&rdquo;, while unpleasant words were commonly attached to African American names.</p>

<p dir="ltr">This evidence reinforces existing social inequalities and prejudices that can be transferred to machines.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">When being applied to the finance sector, what impacts do you foresee A.I. bias might have on finance industry?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">Compliance is an issue, for example what kind of customers you&rsquo;re picking. When using machine learning to assign credit scores, algorithms might rate an ethnic minority who needs a loan at a higher risk of default just because similar people have traditionally only been afforded unfavourable loan conditions. This could also be said for women who receive lower wages and less funding for new businesses as compared to men.</p>

<p dir="ltr">The main thing I worry about though&nbsp;is institutions not realising how important it is to document what they do and expose themselves to regulators and work with regulators.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">What should we, as &ldquo;authors of robots&rdquo; moving forward do better?</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">Many people are trying to make out that AI is now self-learning, or at least all programmed via machine learning. No algorithm spontaneously generates a software system or a robot. Quite a lot of the algorithms that affect people&#39;s lives are just macros someone programmed in a spreadsheet. AI is created by people deliberately. And don&rsquo;t forget you can get bias in A.I. because someone put it in there deliberately because they&rsquo;re out to be bad people.</p>

<p dir="ltr"><img src="http://miotech-landingpage-images.oss-cn-shanghai.aliyuncs.com/images/1544438529489_1543226335809_image1.png/th1000" style="height:auto; max-width:100%; width:auto" /></p>

<p dir="ltr">Source:Trader Feed ( <a href="http://bit.ly/2mn3u1M">http://bit.ly/2mn3u1M</a> )</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">The way to deal with this is to insist on the right to explanation, on due process. &nbsp;All algorithms that affect people&#39;s lives should be subject to audit. If you don&rsquo;t have accountability for software, it is dangerous. We take for granted cooperation with government, engagement in policy, training in legal responsibilities and so forth. &nbsp;It&#39;s time our discipline matures and we accept what that means in terms of accountability.</p>

<blockquote>
<p dir="ltr">&rdquo;All algorithms that affect people&#39;s lives should be subject to audit.&ldquo;</p>
</blockquote>

<p dir="ltr">Once we saw the result, we understood why our research was important. This is why blue sky research is important. Our research paper helps communicate the true nature of AI and it proves that implicit biases are coming off current realities, off culture and into our technologies. What we can do with that, is now, we can explicitly say, that that&rsquo;s not the future we choose for ourselves. The implicit biases come for free; we have to make an effort to make the future better.</p>

<p dir="ltr">&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr">To read full research paper, click <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/306885285_Semantics_derived_automatically_from_language_corpora_necessarily_contain_human_biases">here</a>.&nbsp;</p>

<p dir="ltr"><span style="font-size:10px"><em>The views expressed above reflect those of the authors and are not necessarily the views of MioTech.</em></span></p>


In this article, MioTech speaks with leading AI specialist, Joanna Bryson on how machines can reflect the biases that humans inherently possess and the detrimental impacts it can have on society.