According to ICCR, a seismic shift in the understanding of energy use and its impacts, coupled with rising power plant construction costs, have exposed coal to shifting circumstances and greater risk on USA territory in recent years. As a result, coal is losing its appeal as a predictable investment and is instead fraught with uncertainty. An increasing number of companies have announced more generally that they will not seek to build any new coal-fired power plants at this time, and some state regulators are beginning to reject coal plant investments as too risky and ill-timed for current circumstances. Today, investments in coal-fired plants carry far more risk, especially because of the likely regulation of greenhouse gas emissions and rising construction costs. As a result, investors in both regulated and merchant companies cannot be assured that they will recover and earn reasonable returns. Capture and storage technology is not commercially viable and may not be for years, according to ICCR.

Source : ICCR

Religious investors urge 63 top U.S. restaurant, food, beverage, candy companies to oppose spring planting of genetically modified sugar beets. "Don't Mess With Sugar!" is message consumers will send to companies positioned to block genetic tinkering with sugar. ICCR (Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility) takes part in the operation and is concerned about sugar beets and other genetically modified crops because of weak governmental review and oversight, and the lack of long-term, independent and peer-reviewed safety studies. Leslie Lowe, (director, Energy & Environment Program, ICCR) highlights that companies face major potential backlashes if they do not act now to stop the use of genetically modified sugar from sugar beets.

Source : ICCR

Nineteen institutional investors - including some of Exxon Mobil's largest shareowners - with more than $740 billion in combined assets under management are voting at the end of May 2008 in support of resolutions asking Exxon Mobil Corporation to address climate change risks and opportunities and separate the Chairman and CEO positions. The major investors holding over 91 million shares of Exxon Mobil stock valued at more than $8.6 billion, announced they are supporting four key climate-related shareholder resolutions, as well as a separate proxy item to split the CEO and chairman jobs. Mindy S. Lubber, investors coalition Ceres President, said : "Investors want Exxon Mobil to not only understand the business impacts of climate change, but to mitigate the financial risks and take advantage of the numerous growing opportunities that exist».

Source : INCR

European signatories to the IIGCC Investor Statement on Climate Change (representing €1.4 trillion in assets under management) have published a report describing how they have delivered on the goals set out in the Statement. The report shows that that climate change is increasingly seen as a core investment issue. The report identifies 3 key areas where further action is required. First, despite asset owner interest in action on climate change, only of 30% of asset owners formally integrate climate change into their processes for appointing and evaluating fund managers. Second, some important climate change risks, in particular those associated with adaptation to the physical impacts of climate change, have received less investment focus. Third, the signals being sent by government to investors remain weak and in places contradictory, which is hampering investment decision-making. Signatories emphasise the importance of collaborative initiatives, such as the IIGCC, in engaging with government on these issues.

Source : IIGCC

On November 16, thousands of activists in more than 50 cities across the U.S. protest Citi and Bank of America's coal investments. This movement, organized by Rainforest Action Network (RAN), follows another protest of the same subject in Washington in early November. According to Bloomberg, Citi was the coal industry's top underwriter in 2006 and is a top lender to companies proposing to build new coal-fired power plants. If built, these plants will emit more than 600 million tons of carbon dioxide annually and negate nearly every other effort to combat climate change. Moreover, according to NGOs, both Citi and Bank of America invest heavily in companies that practice mountaintop removal coal mining, a destructive coal extraction method that is responsible for the loss of millions of acres of forests and mountains and the decimation of communities throughout Appalachia.

Source : Rainforest Action Network

According to 'Mind the Gap', a new report and web section launched by BankTrack, the banking sector is showing progress in developing credit policies that deal with the social, environmental and human rights aspects of their operations, but this progress is slow and unequal, with some banks leading the way and many lagging far behind. The report compares the content of seven sectors and seven issue policies against a 'good policy standard', as derived from international treaties, guidelines and best practices and describes 30 controversial cases banks are involved in. They range from dams to mines, from controversial weapons to child labour, from oil pipelines to oil palm plantations, and from pulp mills to coal-fired power plants. All findings are presented in a set of 45 bank profiles included in the report and on the website. A number of banks provided comments to the findings, which are included in the profiles.

Source : BankTrack

The financial watchdog Netwerk Vlaanderen NGO (B) launched on December 11th the report 'Bank Secrets'. The dossier details the investments by 121 financial groups in companies violating fundamental human rights. The investors channel money to 13 companies selling weapons to dictators, denying people access to land and clean water, co-operating with armed rebel groups and being involved in forced relocations and heavy and irreversible pollution. 121 banks from 24 different countries play a role in the financing of these companies, Netwerk Vlaanderen reports that for the period 2003 - 2007, loans add up to a total of US$13 billion. In Belgium, the report was launched in co-operation with LBC - the largest union in the financial sector. Stefaan Decock, spokesperson from the union, states: «These kind of investments can no longer be tolerated. We think that financial institutions should take important environmental and human rights norms into consideration in their investment decisions.»

Source : BankTrack

Financial institutions using the Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) guidelines to report on their environmental and social performance will soon be able to use the final version of the financial services sector supplement. UNI Finance supported the introduction of indicators on predatory lending and responsible financial advice. Finance companies using the GRI guidelines to report on their social and environmental performance will soon report on sector-specific issues, like their policies and practice to deal with threats and violence towards employees and their families or the initiatives they take to enhance customers' financial literacy, or else their policies regarding the fair design and sale of financial products and services. Social reporting following the GRI guidelines and the sector supplement will be strengthened, according to UNI.

Source : Union Network International

A coalition of investors announced the filing of shareholder resolutions calling upon Wall Street firms to push Sudan to end the violence in Darfur and accept full deployment of U.N. peacekeepers. Calvert and its partners have submitted shareholder proposals at Wells Fargo and JP Morgan, while other members of the coalition have filed with four other banks and financial firms. These particular firms are among the largest U.S. shareholders of foreign oil companies China National Petroleum Corporation of China, Petronas of Malaysia, Oil and Natural Gas Corporation of India, and Sinopec Corporation of China, which provide major financial support to the Government of Sudan. At the same time, the U.S Congress was authorizing states, localities, and private investors to divest from companies operating in the economic sectors that are believed to provide the most revenue to the Khartoum regime and the House passed on December 18 the Sudan Accountability and Divestment Act.

Source : Calvert Online

The Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan Board (OTPP) announced on December 11, 2007, that a $138 million cash settlement agreement has been reached in the securities fraud class action against Biovail Corporation and certain of its officers. OTPP, with co-lead plaintiff Local 282 Welfare Trust Fund, led the prosecution of this litigation on behalf of a class of investors who purchased Biovail common stock during the period February 7, 2003 through March 2, 2004. The complaint alleges that defendants made a series of false and misleading statements regarding the launch of Cardizem LA in 2003. The settlement was reached after nearly four years of intensive litigation and will also include corporate governance relief to be negotiated. According to the President of OTPP, the settlement «is an excellent recovery and reflects the impact that institutional investors like OTPP can have in securities class actions».

Source : Ontario Teachers' Pension Plan

In a sign of the escalating importance that mainstream institutional investors attach to corporate responsibility, a group of signatories to the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) has written to the chief executive officers of 103 companies in more than 30 different countries to recognise front-runners in the integration of environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues. All 103 companies are participants of the UN Global Compact, the world's largest voluntary corporate responsibility initiative. This requires a commitment by CEOs to implement ten principles in the areas of human rights, labour standards, the environment, and anti-corruption - and to communicate annually on progress made. In a letter to CEOs, the investors - representing approximately US$2.13 trillion in assets - focus on adherence to the disclosure dimension of the UN Global Compact.

Source : Morley

Religious and other concerned investors have filed 313 shareholder resolutions with 208 companies throughout the United States and Canada, according to the 2008 edition of the "Proxy Resolutions Book" published by the 275-member organization Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR). Among the issues of greatest concern to socially responsible investors this year are the environment, CEO pay, and access to health care. The statistics break down as follows: 76 resolutions were filed on the topic of the environment, 53 on corporate governance, 46 on health care, 32 on human rights and worker rights, 32 on workplace inclusiveness and sexual orientation non-discrimination, 24 on political contributions, 18 on corporate sustainability, 10 on militarization and violence in society, and lastly, 5 on capital and finance. Religious institutions filed 160 of these resolutions at 111 companies.

Source : ICCR