Pictet

• US conservatives claim that ESG has an overly large impact on corporations and the whole economy – hence recent moves to ban the strategy for government investments.
• But critics in Europe argue that ESG funds are not doing enough to have a positive impact in the real world.
• Most ESG funds take conventional mutual funds as their baseline and tweak their capital allocation according to ESG criteria.
• Our market analysis of ESG funds showed that, out of all index-tracking ESG funds, 88% are broad ESG funds.

Who really sets ESG standards?

• There are many but, for example, the S&P 500 represents the US stock market, while the MSCI ESG Leaders USA Index supposedly represents the leading US companies with respect to ESG criteria.
• Further, most ESG funds are based on the ESG ratings of companies, which do not seek to measure a corporation’s sustainability impact on the environment or society.
• Broad ESG investing based on MSCI and other rating and index providers is therefore really only a risk management tool for investors.
• This means that broad ESG funds, which constitute the lion’s share of the market, often only make a rather feeble attempt to manage ESG.

How ESG funds could boost sustainability

• Capital allocation is only one of the potential ways ESG investing can boost sustainability, however.
• This should include clear criteria for broad ESG funds to dictate how capital allocation should deviate from conventional funds, plus favourable taxation or regulatory arrangements to boost the market share of light and dark green funds.
• The volume of “true” ESG funds is still so small that they cannot possibly change contemporary capitalism, indicating the US conservatives’ “war” on ESG is just electioneering.

• LONDON, April 12, 2023 /PRNewswire/ -- Infogrid , a leader in sustainability focused smart building technology, today announced it has raised $90 million in fresh equity and converting CLNs, and a further $30m of debt facilities in Series B funding after 5x growth in 2022.
• Infogrid is an AI-powered sustainability focused smart building platform that automates and optimizes facilities and building management, actively preventing carbon emissions, water and chemical waste while making buildings safe.
• Infogrid provides building owners, facility and workplace managers with a holistic and real-time view of building data that can help them meet sustainability targets, reduce costs and improve employee productivity and well-being.
• Over 200 global blue-chip customers are already using Infogrid to improve their facilities' internal environment and overall sustainability.

• Proceeds from the financing will be used to further fund clinical development, manufacturing scale-up, and preparation for potential commercialization of opelconazole.
• Opelconazole is a potent, novel triazole antifungal that has been specifically designed for use as an inhaled therapy against pulmonary aspergillosis.
• The Company is also conducting a Phase 2b clinical trial using opelconazole as a monotherapy for prophylaxis against aspergillus infections in patients following lung transplant surgery.
• Under the United Kingdom’s Special Needs provision, opelconazole was found to be generally well tolerated and demonstrated remarkable clinical responses.

• The CMTA's proof of concept marks a milestone for the Swiss financial industry.
• The proof of concept involves:
  the issuance of tokenized investment products recorded on an Ethereum test blockchain,
  the trading of these products in Swiss francs on a regulated Swiss securities exchange, and
  the settlement of trades through a smart contract developed by the CMTA.
• These three distinct operations - issuance, trading and settlement - all happened within hours, when they take days to unfold in a traditional financial environment.
• These securities were then traded on the platform of BX Swiss, a FINMA regulated Swiss securities exchange.