------------------------------------------------------------------------ Issue 28 April 2004 www.unepfi.net/ebulletin "When you have American Electric Power and other companies recognizing their fiduciary duty to assess and disclose their environmental risk exposure to shareholders, then we have to ask: shouldn't the Securities and Exchange Commission also be recognizing this responsibility?" - Denise Nappier, Connecticut State Treasurer - MEMBER SHOWCASE 1. Nedbank Launches its First Sustainability Report ACTIVITIES 2. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Launches its New Report 3. First Central and Eastern European Task Force (CEETF) Meeting in Sofia 4. Third UNEP FI - GRI Working Group on Performance Indicators (Environment) for the International Finance Sector EVENT WIRE 5. Sustainable Energy Finance for Creating the climate for change (June 1-2, 2004; Bonn, Germany) NEWS 6. New Calvert Survey Shows Investors Link Corporate Responsibility with Reduced Risk, Better Returns 7. Thirteen Pension Funds Call on SEC to Require Disclosure on Climate Change Risk MEMBER SHOWCASE 1. Nedbank Launches its First Sustainability Report Nedcor limited, holding company of South African UNEP FI signatory, Nedbank, is proud to announce the release of its first Sustainability Report, for 2003. This report represents an important step in the progression of the company towards embracing sustainability considerations. It also forms part of a wider strategy to interact on a more regular basis with all of its stakeholders, as well as to create partnerships with other companies, NGO's e.g. WWF-South Africa, academic institutions and intergovernmental bodies such as UNEP FI. The report can be viewed online at: www.nedcor.co.za/financials/2003sustain/index.htm For further information contact: Justin Smith: Justins@nedcor.co.za ACTIVITIES 2. The Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) Launches its New Report The UNEP FI Climate Change working group have continued their close collaboration with Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and are assisting in the launch of their latest project. CDP will shortly be launching its second report in London, New York and Tokyo; London The London launch, on the 19 th May, will be the official release of CDP second report. Sir John Bond, Chair of HSBC Group, will be addressing the launch which will be followed by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors who will present the report findings. New York Alan Brown, group chief investment officer of State Street Global Advisors, will be the keynote speaker at the 21st May New York launch. Of the 93 CDP signatories, 20 are US institutional investors with five State Treasurers including California and New York State. Tokyo The first Asian launch of the CDP report will be at the Development Bank of Japan (DBJ) on 3 rd June. Speakers from WWF Japan and the Japanese Ministry of the Environment will join the CDP secretariat, DBJ, Innovest and the UNEP FI representative to launch the Japanese version of the CDP second report. Melbourne Wednesday, 2 June 2004 is the launch of the CDP report in Melbourne, Australia. Deputy Premier of Victoria and Minister for the Environment, Mr John Thwaites will officially launch the report and Matthew Kiernan, CEO of Innovest will present the report findings. CDP, who provide a coordinating secretariat for a large group of institutional investors, wrote to the 500 largest companies in the world by market capitalisation on 1st November 2003 asking for the disclosure of investment-relevant information concerning their greenhouse gas emissions. The report which is based on the responses received from international corporations will highlight the latest research on the risks and opportunities to investors from climate change. On 19th May both responses from corporations and the report will be available to download for free at www.cdproject.net If you would like to attend these free events please e-mail Daniel Turner - Daniel@cdproject.net requesting an invite and stating which launch event you wish to attend. To download the report for free on the 19 May: www.cdproject.net 3. First Central and Eastern European Task Force (CEETF) Meeting in Sofia On May 11-12 , 2004, Emporiki Bank Bulgaria will welcome participants of the Central and Eastern European (CEE) Task Force for a kick-off meeting. The participating banks are among the biggest financial institutions in the CEE region; HVB Group, Emporiki Bank , Raiffeisen Zentralbank Austria AG, Bank PKO SA, OTP, Komercni Banka, ING Hungary, amongst others. The group of financial institutions will be joined by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), Vertis Environmental Finance and the Regional Environmental Centre for Central and Eastern Europe. The meeting will be divided into a closed task force meeting, which will allow members to discuss the future working mechanisms and work programme of the task force. For the second part of the meeting we are delighted to welcome the EBRD and Environmental Investment Partners as speakers. The second session is dedicated to interested Bulgarian financial institutions to raise awareness about UNEP FI activities and sustainable finance in the region. For further information contact: Regina Kessler: regina.kessler@unep.ch 4. Third UNEP FI - GRI Working Group on Performance Indicators (Environment) for the International Finance Sector The third UNEP FI - GRI Working Group meeting will take place on May 6th -7th, in the Swiss Re Centre for Global Dialogue, Rüschlikon, Switzerland. The project, which aims to produce a set of globally applicable performance indicators for the environmental impacts of financial sector products and services, will culminate in the development of a pilot version of the GRI Financial Services Sector Supplement (Environmental Performance) in the third quarter of 2004. This will be the second indicator drafting meeting aimed at finalising a set of pilot indicators to be released for public consultation following this meeting and prior to the fourth working group meeting in September. For more information on this Working Group project, and for forthcoming announcements on the beginning of the public consultation period, please visit www.unepfi.net/gri. For further information contact: Niamh O' Sullivan: niamh.osullivan@unep.ch EVENT WIRE 5. Sustainable Energy Finance for Creating the climate for change Post Tower, Bonn, Germany 1-2 June 2004 An event presented by the UNEP Sustainable Energy Finance Initiative (SEFI) SEFI is a platform for providing sustainable energy financiers with the tools, support and networks needed to drive the cycle of financial innovation focused on a greening of the energy mix. SEFI serves to: - provide current and targeted information to financiers, - facilitate networks of the first movers to address jointly specific issues of concern, and - catalyse public/private partnerships for launching innovative financial products and services. SEFI is a joint initiative of UNEP's Energy Unit, UNEP Finance Initiative and Basel Agency for Sustainable Energy BASE. 'Creating the climate for change' aims to help decision makers in the finance sector review the challenges and opportunities associated with investing in clean energy. The outcome shall be practicable solutions for bringing down the barriers to investment and deepening the markets exposure to sustainable energy systems. Registration deadline is May 15th. For further information please visit: www.sefi.unep.org/sef_bonn The event is held in conjunction with the International Conference for Renewable Energies, which the Government of Germany is hosting in Bonn from 1-4 June 2004. www.renewables2004.de/ NEWS 6. New Calvert Survey Shows Investors Link Corporate Responsibility With Reduced Risk, Better Returns Excerpts from GreenMoneyJournal.com Calvert, the nation's largest family of socially responsible mutual funds, announced the results of a Harris Interactive® investor survey, which dramatically highlights investors' growing concerns about ethical standards at corporations and mutual fund companies. "The survey clearly shows that investors understand that corporate responsibility matters," said Barbara J. Krumsiek, Calvert's President & CEO. "It is increasingly clear that investors believe that well-governed, socially responsible companies are better positioned to deliver long-term, sustainable value to their shareholders," she added. Conducted by Harris Interactive® for Calvert, the survey found that investors see a definite link between good corporate governance and shareholder value: 84% of investors are more likely to invest in a mutual fund if it engages in ethical business practices in its operations and reporting. 71% of those surveyed said that they either strongly agreed (35%) or somewhat agreed (36%) that companies operating with higher levels of integrity carry lower investment risk. 68% of those surveyed said that they either strongly agreed (31%) or somewhat agreed (37%) that companies operating with higher levels of integrity deliver higher investment returns. http://unepfi.net/ebulletin/Issue_Apr_2004.pdf 7. Thirteen Pension Funds Call on Securities and Exchange Commission to Require Disclosure on Climate Change Risk Excerpts from Socialfunds.com by William Baue Institutional investors ask the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) to issue a clarification that climate change is a material risk which must be disclosed in filings. A group of 13 public pension funds managing over $800 billion in assets believes that many companies are not fulfilling their duty to disclose the material financial risks associated with climate change in their MD&As. The group is sending a letter to SEC Chair William Donaldson asking him to clarify that climate change is indeed a material risk requiring disclosure on security filings. At the Coalition for Environmentally Responsible Economies (CERES) Annual Conference, the group made public its plea. http://unepfi.net/ebulletin/Issue_Apr_2004.pdf To unsubscribe: email: LISTSERV@peach.ease.lsoft.com and in the body of the email type "signoff UNEPFI" To subscribe: email: LISTSERV@peach.ease.lsoft.com and in the body of the email type "subscribe UNEP FI" END. The UNEP FI e-bulletin is a monthly publication of the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative. United Nations Environment Programme Division of Technology, Industry and Economics Economics and Trade Branch Finance Initiative Unit Chief Editor: Paul Clements-Hunt Editor: Henry Thomas - henry.thomas@unep.ch Disclaimer: The views expressed in this publication are not necessarily those of UNEP or UNEP FI, or of its signatories, nor does UNEP FI or its signatories take any responsibility for actions taken as a result of views or opinions expressed in this publication. Copyright 2004 - UNEP FI