During the last decades the management practices to handle environmental requirements on companies have been in a process of change. "Investment decisions and the environment" explores the consequences to planning practices for capital investments. Concepts such as normative pressure, strategic uncertainty, and flexibility are employed to anderstand the challenges to managers that design systems and make investment decisions (4e de couv.).
This book sets out to reframe the theory of real options so that it can be used to support environmental investments for climate change adaptation and mitigation. Climate change policy often involves making decisions that concern extended time periods, and doing so under considerable uncertainty. By expanding and broadening the framework of real options, this book first introduces readers to new ways of quantifying investment decisions that can much more effectively address the shape and size of the uncertainty than traditional approaches using Net Present Value. In turn, the second part of the book applies this new theoretical framework to climate change policy by presenting a number of examples, and by providing a general perspective on investment decisions related to climate change and how to prioritize them.
Environmental Interests in Investment Arbitration Challenges and Directions Flavia Marisi Economic growth, social inclusion, and environmental protection stand at the core of sustainable development, which aims to deliver long-term growth for current and future generations. Foreign Direct Investment (FDI) can play a key role in sustainable development. Host states’ benefits descending from FDI inflows include tax revenues, technology transfer, specialised training of local human resources, network with satellite activities, better availability of quality products and customer-centric services. These downstream effects jointly stimulate economic growth and social inclusion. This thoroughly researched book explores the relationship between environmental protection – the third component of sustainable development – and FDI. In practice, the intersection between environmental protection and foreign investment not only has generated remarkable success stories such as cross-sectoral green investment but has also in some instances led to severe cases of environmental degradation. Certain foreign investments resulted in open-pit mines leaking harmful substances into the soil, excessive deforestation, improper treatment of water, pollution of groundwater and contamination of mud pits following oil exploitation, leaving the host state with significant environmental damage. Some other cases have witnessed the host state withdrawing or infringing its own environmental policies, which could, in principle, lead to a decrease in the value of the foreign investment as a result of natural resources deterioration. In recent years, an increasing number of investment arbitration cases have seen a clash between the states’ commitments towards their citizens, which include the duty to protect the environment, their health and well-being, and the commitment towards foreign investors to protect their investments. In this book, the author focuses on investor-state cases in which environmental protection measures have been contested and discusses substantive mechanisms in treaty drafting, rules of Customary International Law, and interpretation doctrines, which are aimed at taking environmental concerns into consideration. The topics covered include the following: statistical analysis of investor-state cases where environmental protection measures have been contested; the role of environmental principles in investor-state arbitration; treaty mechanisms addressing environmental concerns; legal tools available under Customary International Law to address environmental interests; the application of the doctrines of proportionality, police powers, and margin of appreciation; and environmental counterclaims as an instrument to claim compensation for environmental damage. The author provides a detailed framework on the normative architecture, offers an extensive analysis of the relevant case law, and proposes concrete solutions to the identified clashes, aimed at refining the balance between environmental and investment protection. With its in-depth analysis and careful documentation, this book aptly captures the inherent fragmentation of international law and undoubtedly represents an invaluable resource for both international law practitioners and scholars. The solution-oriented approach adopted in the book will be welcomed by legal counsel, law firms, investment treaty negotiators, and decision makers at the different stages of investment lawmaking and practice, as well as by international institutions and academics.
This book takes the idea of environmentally friendly investment options and expands on it by providing for you, the reader, the absolute best ways to diversify your portfolio, increase your returns, and invest with a good conscious all the same time. You will learn the fundamental basics of what impacts the environment negatively and what makes an impact negative. You will learn how you can start analyzing businesses from the outset and what specific details you should always be looking for. Learn what your own environmental impact is outside of your finances and how you can start making changes in every aspect of your life to combat these issues. With so many people starting to take a closer look at the environmental impact of financial decisions, many experts on the topic have started to appear, and of those experts, a select few have been interviewed and asked their thoughts on the matter of choosing the right companies for this book. You will learn what the best industries are out there and what the best options for your money are. You will learn what they really mean when they say they are âeoecarbon neutralâe and how to find out if a company is truly carbon neutral or if they are just buying credits from companies that are carbon neutral. Learn how to read between the fuzzy lines the EPA gives companies to work with and how to finally start making the right decisions with your portfolio with this book in hand. Atlantic Publishing is a small, independent publishing company based in Ocala, Florida. Founded over twenty years ago in the company presidentâe(tm)s garage, Atlantic Publishing has grown to become a renowned resource for non-fiction books. Today, over 450 titles are in print covering subjects such as small business, healthy living, management, finance, careers, and real estate. Atlantic Publishing prides itself on producing award winning, high-quality manuals that give readers up-to-date, pertinent information, real-world examples, and case studies with expert advice. Every book has resources, contact information, and web sites of the products or companies discussed.
"How can investors be encouraged to consider more than purely commercial and short-term gains? Various sets of investment principles have emerged in recent years. These principles aim to incorporate social, environmental and governance criteria into investment decisions in order to enhance the benefits and reduce the damaging effects of investment for development. Increasing numbers of organisations are signing up to these principles for reasons that range from improving their reputation to minimising risks and improving long-term investment prospects. Yet their impact on sustainable development remains unproven. Focusing on four major sets of investment principles - the UN Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI), the Equator Principles, the Environmental and Social Principles of the European Investment Bank (EIB), and the OECD Declaration on International Investment and Multinational Enterprises - Investing for sustainable development? takes a first step in assessing the content, take-up, implementation and impact of investment principles. The study finds that the main impact of investment principles on sustainable development so far is mitigation of the worst effects of investments rather than a shift in the underlying basis of decision-making. Investors are generally unwilling to compromise high returns for improved sustainable development outcomes. The authors call for better monitoring and measurement of the impact of investment principles, as well as a better understanding of the broader institutional changes required to support them so the next generation of investment principles can be more ambitious and bring about investment that supports, rather than undermines, sustainable development."--Publisher description.
The authors have done an excellent job explaining the development and practice of Socially Responsible Investment (SRI). Under the recent recognition of Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) in Asia and its strong emphasis by US and European corporations, this book provides important guidance to students and professionals who are interested in the effects and implications of SRI. This book is truly informative and should be on the reading list of all fund managers and CFOs of international corporations which are serious about CSR. Louis T.W. Cheng, Hong Kong Polytechnic University Individual investors and corporate heads have the responsibility to keep abreast of major changes in the marketplace. Socially responsible investment is one of those changes. Fung, Law and Yau provide, in a single source, a great opportunity to get up to date on an area that will be a force for years to come. I encourage any thoughtful investor or manager to read this book. Thomas Schneeweis, University of Massachusetts Amherst, US Socially responsible investment (SRI) is becoming increasingly popular and can be potentially rewarding to all parties concerned. This book discusses the opportunities, challenges, and practices of SRI in a global financial environment in a consistent and integrated framework of risk management. It also covers a wide variety of environmental, social, and corporate governance (ESG) issues related to various participants, such as values-based retail, institutional investors, corporations, banks, supranational agencies, and non-governmental organizations. Readers are provided with the perspectives of SRI from various players in the financial community from values-based investors to fiduciaries to supranational agencies. The authors analyse the incorporation of ESG issues into investment practices within a regulatory, legal, reputational, and operational risk management framework. Academics, corporate executives, government regulators and policymakers, bankers, and non-governmental organizations involved with sustainable development will find much of interest in this book.
This edition of the OECD Sovereign Borrowing Outlook reviews developments in response to the COVID-19 pandemic for government borrowing needs, funding conditions and funding strategies in the OECD area.
Besides financial goals, companies increasingly start formulating strategic environmental goals. However, the management and control of these goals remains a challenge. Therefore, this thesis aims to develop a method that is able to systematically integrate financial and environmental data in investment processes to support the achievement of strategic environmental and financial goals of companies. This new integrated investing method intends to provide a sufficient degree of scientific quality on the one hand and practical applicability on the other hand. In context of this thesis, a deficit analysis assesses reasons why current methods of environmental management accounting have not established as common business practice so far. During the first part of the subsequent method development a set of seven requirements is composed. On basis of these requirements additional methods of environmental management and management accounting systems are evaluated resulting in a final set of three approaches representing the basis of developing the new integrated investing method. After developing and describing the new integrated investing method, the method is applied in seven case studies within the Volkswagen Group. This method application verifies the method's practical applicability as well as its ability to manage and control strategic environmental and financial goals. In conclusion, this dissertation contributes to the development and application of a new integrated investing method that aims to ensure a sufficient degree of scientific quality and practical applicability. With the help of this method, it is able to systematically integrate environmental impacts in investment processes of companies in order to manage and control the achievement of strategic environmental and financial goals.
Investors are increasingly integrating environmental, social, and governance (ESG) issues into their investment decisions. Currently, more than half of managed assets in Europe are linked to ESG factors, while in Japan, ESG investment has grown dramatically in recent years. In principle, ESG investment can help to bridge the gap between profit-driven investment and economic and social sustainability in Asia and the Pacific. However, a number of challenges, such as unclear and varied sustainable investment criteria, untested impacts on corporate value and social issues, and the lack of quality data cloud the potential for increasing ESG investment. This book aims to contribute to developing a framework for future analysis and monitoring to ensure the growth of ESG investment.
