The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) will host its 2027 PRI in Person in Hong Kong. The investor network has confirmed that the 19th edition of the event will be held on 13-15 October in the Chinese financial hub. The PRI’s flagship event has been held in Asia three times – in Tokyo in 2023, Singapore in 2016 and Seoul in 2008. “Asia increasingly shapes the future of responsible investment. The region drives around 60 percent of global economic growth, while its innovation and resilience will be pivotal in determining the outcome of the climate transition,” a PRI spokesperson told Responsible Investor.
The European Central Bank (ECB) has expanded the use of climate factors in its collateral framework to non-financial corporate credit claims, with the framework set to be in place by the end of 2027 at the earliest. The European supervisor announced last month that it would add a climate factor to the calculation of haircuts for corporate bonds being used as collateral. It will now expand this to the non-financial corporate loans that banks can post as collateral to the ECB.
The ECB will work with Climate Analytics on forward-looking climate scenarios focused on “the agricultural sector, food prices and financial stability”. The nonprofit climate science institute beat 11 other bidders to win the 18-month contract, worth €350,000. Its experts will work alongside the ECB and European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts to develop “tailored indicators and forward-looking scenarios”. Along with datasets and scenarios, the project will also include the creation of an “analytical toolbox” to support integration of the work into the ECB’s “macroeconomic analysis and decision-making processes”, the tender document said.
The California Air Resources Board has deferred its emissions reporting deadline for companies from August to November this year, according to a regulatory update released on Monday. The state body published 22 proposed modifications to the regulation, which clarifies the scope and enforcement of California’s climate transparency rules. The revisions are out for a 15-day comment period.
The Net Zero Engagement Initiative convened by the IIGCC has added 19 focus companies from emerging markets and developing economies following a member vote, according to the initiative’s progress report. The new firms are based across India, China and Hong Kong, Chile, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and Taiwan. Overall, the IIGCC said two-thirds of focus companies made progress against the initiative’s core engagement objectives in the past year, with 103 meetings, over 100 written exchanges and 53 “AGM-related actions”.
The number of sustainability and governance shareholder proposals at US companies which went to the vote almost halved in 2026 from the highs of 2023 and 2024, according to figures from Morningstar’s Lindsey Stewart. Stewart, director of institutional insights at the US indices and research firm, said 70 resolutions from anti-ESG filers and 261 conventional resolutions went to the vote, compared with 97 and 550 in 2024 and 67 and 557 in 2023, respectively. When excluding anti-ESG filers, average support for sustainability-related resolutions rose 90 basis points to 16.9 percent, arresting a slide in support that has been ongoing since 2022. Average support for environmental resolutions remained level at 14.7 percent, while social resolutions saw average support rise from 16.8 to 18 percent.
External managers used by Amova Asset Management are increasingly incorporating climate-related considerations into their financial analysis, the firm said in its 2026 sustainability report. The $272 billion Japanese-headquartered manager said it had to intervene with one external manager which was investing in growth companies with limited ESG disclosures, particularly on environmental issues. “Through repeated engagement and guidance on ESG processes, the manager deepened its understanding of ESG considerations and developed an internal ESG checklist to support investment research and stock selection”, as well as adopting a more granular scoring system, the report said. On voting, Amova said it had opposed management on 12 percent of votes, with the ratio of opposition highest in APAC ex-Japan, at 16 percent.
Investor questions on corporate sustainability strategies are increasingly focused on whether companies can deliver against their ambitions and assessing their ability to manage sustainability-related risks and opportunities, according to a study by NatWest of questions received by corporate bond issuers over the first half of this year. The bank said questions on ESG-labelled instruments were increasingly focusing on alignment with standards, rising from 19 percent of questions in the first half of 2025 to 55 percent in the same period this year. Queries around the use of proceeds from the bonds declined, which NatWest said suggests investors are increasingly comfortable with established green financing categories, and “are hence spending more time assessing the credibility of targets and framework alignment rather than the nuances of financed projects”.
