Amid an escalating climate and environmental crisis, the high and still increasing production of animal proteins, particularly meat, stands out due to its outsized climate, land and water footprint. However, major meat and dairy corporations have largely managed to avoid strict environmental regulations. Recent research showed that they conceal their actions behind a facade of voluntary climate targets and ostensibly ambitious targets to reduce their emissions while downplaying their exposure. Meanwhile, big banks continue to pour large sums of money into the operations of industrial livestock and feed companies and, with this, undermine their own climate commitments.

Sustainable finance taxonomies are rapidly emerging in many countries and jurisdictions. Existing frameworks are regularly updated in terms of their scope and the robustness of their requirements. However, taxonomies are lagging behind on one key aspect – their implementation. While other voluntary and semi-voluntary sustainability standards have seen varying phasing-in rates, taxonomies seem to demonstrate a disappointingly slow uptake. The EU should take the lead, make alignment mandatory and persuade its partners to follow suit.

Seafood is increasingly acknowledged for its nutritional benefits and a large variety of (certified) seafood products can be found on retail shelves and restaurant menus at one’s convenience. However, numerous research reports show widespread human rights abuses in seafood supply chains. As many seafood companies fail to improve transparency and working conditions in a meaningful way, it is crucial to enhance scrutiny of this sector and hold supply chain actors accountable for abuses.

After four years of intense negotiations, the European Union seemed to have reached a landmark agreement on the Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive (CSDDD) last December. This directive obliges large companies to identify, mitigate and, where necessary, remedy actual and potential adverse impacts on the environment and human rights for the value chains in which they operate. However, due to obstructions led by Germany, severe concessions have been made to the agreed proposal of last December. With a final vote scheduled this week for the last plenary sessions of the current Parliament, the adoption of the directive has become a true nailbiter. Should the EU fail to adopt the CSDDD, all parties will lose out.

As the European Commission embarks on new migration partnerships with repressive regimes and gives them more funding to cooperate on the prevention of irregular migration and strengthen border management, it becomes imperative to closely examine the mechanisms through which border control policies are put into action. A new report written by Profundo and partners, which was commissioned by the Greens in the European Parliament, calls for transparency and accountability within EU migration governance.

The largest fossil fuels creditor and financier of emissions is the biggest laggard in fighting climate change

While the Dutch ING Bank’s climate policy and practices have been the subject of numerous critical studies by Profundo and others, providing financing to fossil fuels companies is still dominating its portfolio. The bank has only taken “baby steps” to curb its contribution to devastating climate change. As the bank cannot make the needed change on its own initiative, it’s indeed time to go to court. ING should be held accountable for its (lack of genuine) climate actions.

Carbon offsetting projects based on restoring or protecting forests are failing to help tackle climate change as well as failing to help local communities. Research shows that offsetting projects are persistently inefficient and lack the quality to be considered a credible way to compensate for the greenhouse gas emissions of corporations. Furthermore, many of these projects are creating disruptions and negative effects on vulnerable local and indigenous communities across the world.

La compensación de carbono basada en la restauración o protección de bosques no ayuda a abordar el problema del cambio climático ni ayuda a las comunidades locales. Las investigaciones muestran que los proyectos de compensación son persistentemente ineficientes y carecen de la calidad para ser considerados una forma creíble de compensar las emisiones de gases de efecto invernadero de las empresas. Además, muchos de estos proyectos están creando problemas en las comunidades locales e indígenas.

Should financial institutions finance DSM?
The deep seabed in all oceans contains huge reserves of unexploited critical minerals needed for the energy transition, such as cobalt, nickel and zinc. These reserves attract attention, as land-based mineral deposits are becoming scarce and as mining is often accompanied by human rights abuses. However, deep sea mining (DSM) is technologically complex, expensive, and not yet regulated. As little is known about deep sea ecosystems, concerns are growing about the potential negative impacts of DSM. As it takes ages for the ores to develop, we can’t speak of a renewable source, say experts.

Paper and board are increasingly used for food and beverage packaging. Paper packaging is marketed as an environment-friendly alternative to plastic packaging, which loses appeal and is increasingly banned. However, new research by Profundo shows that single-use paper-based materials are no solution to the problems created by plastic packaging when it comes to food packaging. They create deforestation, require enormous amounts of water and energy to produce and are hard to recycle because of the coatings and chemicals needed to resist fats and liquids. The only sustainable solution is to reduce our dependence on single-use products and materials.

The coffee sector is mired by its farmers’ poverty, insecurity, and indebtedness. The global community has taken various approaches to tackle these challenges, from voluntary certifications to due diligence legislation. While these are significant steps forward, the effectiveness of any measure would depend on ensuring multi-stakeholder participation in the formulation and implementation stages. Taking a participatory approach towards due diligence would provide a more comprehensive and nuanced understanding of the adverse conditions faced by the producers and workers in the coffee sector.

The plastics problem, which not only manifests itself in widespread ocean pollution, landfills, and plastic particles detected in human blood and animal fodder, but also in rising greenhouse gas emissions, should be tackled at the roots: by reducing production and consumption. But the role which reducing plastics should play in the trajectory towards a fossil fuel free world is largely underestimated – even ignored – by large companies and investors. This undermines our ability to reach the goals of the Paris agreement.

Bottled water should primarily be produced to improve global access to clean drinking water in regions where tap water is not available. Instead, the shelves of supermarkets across the world are full of plastic bottles with drinking water being sold as a healthy alternative to tap water. As such, the global bottled water industry contributes to plastic pollution, waste of water, toxic air emissions, and the spreading of false health claims.

The European Union is making significant investments in climate action, aiming to become the first climate-neutral block by 2050. In this context, decarbonising the energy and transport sectors is vital to achieving this goal. But the negative consequences of this transition on human and labour rights in the Global South are largely overlooked, particularly in terms of mining and producing crop-based biofuels. Culprit in this is not only the lax social sustainability criteria in the EU’s policies governing the energy transition across the energy and transport sectors, but also the failure to address how we travel.

April 24 marks the 10-year anniversary of the Rana Plaza factory collapse in Bangladesh. It remains the biggest factory disaster ever, killing more than 1,000 people and injuring more than 2,500, most of them working in garment production. The disaster not only revealed the poor conditions of the buildings, but also the imbalanced power relations in the garment industry facilitating exploitative labour conditions and low wages of garment factory workers. Ten years later, little has changed in garment-producing countries, while fashion brands remain extremely powerful.

To limit global climate change, financial institutions should ensure that sufficient financing is available for all kinds of companies to invest in developing new products and transforming their production processes. While this challenge is clear, most financial institutions are not yet addressing it with the urgency required. This Expert View provides guidance on what can be demanded from them based on our recent assessment of the climate action plans of ten major Dutch financial institutions.

In recent years, many sustainable finance taxonomies have sprung up at both national and regional levels, and many more are still to come. How is this emerging universe going to develop? What trends are already visible, and how can they help to make green and social financial products more accessible for a wider range of companies, and even entirely new sectors, and ultimately help with the environmental and social transformation of our societies?

Since German prosecutors raided the DWS-offices last year because the subsidiary of the Deutsche Bank was greenwashing investment funds, the appeal of the ESG-concept embraced in the past 15 years by the financial sector is rapidly vanishing. Nothing to feel sorry about, as this opens the way for the financial sector to take decisive steps to play a leading role in the sustainable transformation of the global economy.

Fossil fuels will continue to dominate energy consumption in Asia in the coming decade. This creates a huge challenge for the region to align with the Paris Agreement: the global consensus to limit the global temperature rise to 1.5 ºC at max. While wind, solar, and geothermal energy production are growing in some countries, the production of fossil fuel power is still increasing as well. How can Asia overcome the barriers for a Just Energy Transition?

The proposed EU Directive on Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence (CSDD) places obligations on companies to identify, prevent and remedy adverse human rights and environmental impacts in value chains. It could set a precedent in implementing strong provisions on responsible and sustainable business conduct. However, the current draft has some crucial loopholes, among which the exemption of financial institutions from the due diligence requirement.

Millions of exotic animals are still hunted, caged, bred, and brutally killed only to have their skin or fur used in the luxury fashion industry. Despite public protests and government bans, insurance companies active in the Netherlands continue to invest billions in fashion houses that lack proper animal welfare policies, new research revealed.

As in many other countries, Dutch employees cannot choose the pension fund which invests their pension premiums on their behalf. Depending on which employer they work for, they are stuck to a specific fund. But what to do if your fund is not investing responsibly? Dutch broadcasters push their pension fund PNO Media towards more sustainability. But is the pension fund that believes more in engagement with companies than in exclusion of companies, willing to engage itself with its members?

Despite the climate and biodiversity plans of financial institutions and companies, the role of plastics is consistently neglected in their policies and practices. Understanding the financing of the plastics boom is key to turning the tide in what can be considered one of the earth’s biggest threats.

The devastating effects of climate change and the steps needed for mitigation and adaptation are increasingly recognised, but the ways to communicate this complex message are less studied. This expert view explores the power of art and artivism for climate justice advocacy. Can art do for climate justice what jargon and statistics cannot do?

In this Expert View we argue that, as the affordability of EVs increases, producing fossil fuel cars will progressively lose pricing power and profit margins. Thus, the business case can be made for quicker EV adoption to sell the higher margin product for longer to maximize long term cash flow generation in the automotive sector, which will help to limit climate change.

This expert view shows how a profit chain analysis offers insights for civil society and other stakeholders about which participants in the supply chain benefit most and who therefore should contribute most to the solution of sustainability issues. The knowledge generated by this methodology, which can be applied by Profundo, can support NGOs in campaigning for a fair contribution of every participant in the supply chain.

The European Union now promotes sustainability reporting with several directives, as it hopes that investors will act as agents of change. But more transparency requirements alone will not  sufficiently stimulate companies and investors to collaborate on drastically needed sustainability transitions.

The war in Ukraine is met with firm responses by European governments and companies alike, willing to stand up in defense of human lives. While this is encouraging, this Expert View shows that the political and investment decisions of European governments, companies, banks and investors have played a crucial role in building up Putin’s economic and military power.

The screening of investments on risks of human rights’ violations is the responsibility of companies and pension funds, says the new Dutch Minister in her answers to parliamentary questions after Profundo research on Dutch links with Qatar. Is she revoking Dutch promises?

About 70 billion animals are being slaughtered annually to feed 7 billion humans. The meat sector is responsible for more than 14% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions - more than the whole transport sector. The livestock industry also is the single largest driver of habitat loss worldwide, which impacts biodiversity and the livelihood of local communities.

Deforestation in the Brazilian Amazon and Cerrado is surging, with the increasing acreage needed for soy cultivation as one of the key drivers. A significant share of all soy is exported to feed livestock in Europe, China and other overseas markets, to satisfy the growing demand for meat and dairy.

EU member states disagree on whether Saudi Arabia, the leader of a coalition responsible for fighting a devastating war in Yemen, should be eligible for buying European arms. The Saudi-led coalition is involved in severe human rights violations and violations of international humanitarian law, through the starving of the Yemeni people. But the France Defence Minister buried her head in the sand when she confirmed early May that France will send a new arms shipment to Saudi Arabia..

Ten years after a majority of all countries in the world banned production of cluster munitions in the 2008 Convention on Cluster Munitions, investors and banks are still exposed to cluster bombs. These weapons contain multiple explosive submunitions, “which can saturate an area up to the size of several football fields. Anybody within the strike area of the cluster munition, be they military or civilian, is very likely to be killed or seriously injured.

The election of the ex-military far-right politician Jair Bolsonaro as Brazil’s next president puts the country’s economy on the path to heavy deregulation. Bolsonaro’s campaign promises include backing off from the Paris climate agreement, the abolishment of the Brazilian ministry of environment, stripping indigenous peoples’ land rights and opening the Amazon to mining and agriculture.

The Green Bonds market already offers many fixed income options to responsible investors to invest in sustainable companies and projects. But Green Bonds generally have a maturity of 3 to 25 years. A responsible alternative for short-term fixed income investments, such as Commercial Paper, would be a welcome addition.

Smoking tobacco comes with a high price. Annually more than 7 million people die prematurely from tobacco consumption, with about US$ 2 trillion in healthcare costs and lost productivity. The industry still engages millions of children in child labour and accounts for a significant portion of global deforestation. With such societal damage, the tobacco companies and their financiers are faced with significant reputational and investment risks.

Recently, Greenpeace International announced that it is leaving the Forest Stewardship Council (FSC). Since its establishment in 1994, Greenpeace has been advocating FSC as setting more stringent standards than competing certification systems, such as PEFC. But Greenpeace has lost confidence ...

On 8 March, the European Commission (EC) published its action plan on financing sustainable growth. This plan should focus more on regulatory and supervisory measures.

Water scarcity is a risk for populations, companies and investors alike. If the existing climate change scenario becomes a reality, almost half the world’s population will be living in areas of high water stress by 2030. Water scarcity is likely to be an important factor threatening stability in fragile regions.

The International Campaign to Abolish Nuclear Weapons (ICAN) has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize 2017, "for its work to draw attention to the catastrophic humanitarian consequences of any use of nuclear weapons and for its ground-breaking efforts to achieve a treaty-based prohibition of such weapons".

As tobacco products pose many risks, foremost health-related, responsible investors need to consider the best strategy towards this sector. The life expectancy of a long-term smoker, on average, is about 10 years less than a non-smoker. According to the WHO, half of the people who smoke will die from smoking-related diseases - cancer, respiratory problems or vascular diseases.

Amid increased nuclear weapons budgets and serious nuclear tension between the US and North Korea, 7 July 2017 could surprisingly become a landmark date in global nuclear disarmament. From 15 June until 7 July, the General Assembly of the United Nations holds its second ‘Conference to Negotiate a Legally Binding Instrument to Prohibit Nuclear Weapons, Leading Towards their Total Elimination’.

Profundo recently published a report commissioned by Friends of the Earth Netherlands (Milieudefensie), in which the costs from earthquake-related damages caused by gas extraction in Groningen province (in the north of the Netherlands) were estimated. This report found that annual costs could potentially rise in the coming decade to over 1 billion euros.

Monday, April 24, 2017, is proclaimed as “National Garment Workers’ Mourning Day” in Bangladesh. On that date four years earlier, 1,136 people were killed and more than 2,500 injured in the collapse of the Rana Plaza garment factory, near Dhaka, supplier of a large number of international garment brands.

Civil society organisations (CSOs) campaigning on issues of financial sector regulation broadly have two campaign agendas, namely ‘sustainable finance’ and ‘patient finance’. Both agendas have remained mostly disconnected while in fact, patient finance is more sustainable finance.The voice of CSOs could be more powerful if they recognised this and joined forces to explore and harness the overlaps between the two campaign agendas.

KraftHeinz (KHC)’s failed bid on Unilever should undoubtedly be a wake-up call for equity investors. Had the bid been successful, there would have been less transparency in accountability and sustainability reporting and a reduction in Unilever’s long-term value creation agenda

The election of Donald Trump for president of the United States has led to mixed reactions in the responsible investment community. Prior to the elections, his candidacy was regarded ‘a worst nightmare’ by financial analysts.

The introduction of the revised EU Directive ‘IORP II’ is a welcome push for pension funds in the Netherlands to adopt Socially Responsible Investment (SRI) policies and strategies more rapidly. But especially the small and medium sized pension funds need to apply an integrated approach towards ESG investing strategies in order to keep up with the biggest pension funds, for which applying SRI policies is already a regular activity.

The Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) controversy illustrates how financial institutions are increasingly being criticised if their responsible investment policies conflict with their actual investments. The DAPL is a proposed USD 3.78 billion pipeline of 1,886 km being built in the United States by Dakota Access, LLC, which is a subsidiary of Energy Transfer Partners (ETP). It will be built to transport oil from the Bakken oil fields in northwest North Dakota to an oil tank farm in Illinois.

In November, Profundo was invited to the EU Commission’s Committee on Fisheries to present the conclusions of a scoping study on possible measures at the EU-level to promote equity and social justice in the EU seafood industry. A key conclusion of the study was that facilitation measures such as EU-level online platforms are more appropriate for the fisheries sector than regulatory measures.

Textron stops producing cluster munitions. The US company announced in August 2016 that it will “discontinue production of 
its sensor-fuzed weapon product”. What Textron calls a ‘sensor-fuzed weapon’, falls within the definition of ‘cluster munitions and explosive submunitions’ as declared by the international Convention on Cluster Munitions.