This guide is for Financial Institutions and those that work for Financial Institutions.

The goal of the guide is to educate readers about animal welfare and the key animal welfare risks that companies are facing globally, as well as provide some guidance and insight for actively engaging with companies along the food supply chain. Excluding animal welfare from investment policies and procedures has significant risk and return implications.

EMIA’s ESG Initiative hosted Ann Frank Andresen and Thede Rüst of Nordea Asset Management to discuss how their sovereign framework functions and how the team was able to detect a multi-year increase in Governance risk in Russia. The Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) Initiative engages asset managers to discuss their approaches to integrating ESG factors into their investment frameworks and advocating for ESG best practices in emerging markets. 

EMIA’s Carbon Transition Initiative resumed its educational webinars with this joint event with the Labeled Bonds Initiative covering the role of sustainable bonds in financing carbon transition. The panelists discussed current trends, opportunities and challenges in climate financing and sustainable bonds. They provided a general overview of this rapidly growing and developing segment of sustainable finance with a focus on climate and Emerging Markets.
 

On March 31st, 2022, EMIA hosted Vipul Bhagat, Senior advisor on Sustainable Finance to UN Women, Ms. Robyn Oates, UN Women Sustainable Finance Specialist and representatives from the  International Capital Market Association (ICMA) and the International Capital Market Association (IFC) to present their guidance and ongoing work on Gender Bonds.

On March 8th, 2022 EMIA hosted representatives from the Climate Investment Funds (CIF), Convergence and IDB Invest to present their roles and perspectives on blended finance.

The panelists addressed the role of blended finance in scaling up climate finance in developing countries and explained how different stakeholders deploy blended finance solutions and mobilize private capital in EMs for climate action. 

On Tuesday, March 8, 2022, EMIA hosted a panel to discuss the fiscal policy outlook in Brazil in light of the country’s recent commitments on climate and the environment made at COP26. The panel featured H.E. Ambassador Odd Magne Ruud, Royal Norwegian Embassy Brasilia; Rodrigo Godinho, Minister Counselor–Economic Section, Embassy of Brazil, Washington, D.C.; and Tommy Piemonte, Head of Sustainable Investment Research, Bank für Kirche und Caritas eG.

EMIA hosted Jonathan Stern, Distinguished Research Fellow at the Oxford Institute for Energy Studies along with Andrew Howell and Dominic Watson from the Environmental Defense Fund to discuss important issues in emissions measurement and reporting, and methods of their reduction. The speakers described the current situation with methane emissions by countries and companies and explained how EM investors can engage with companies and what they should ask. 

Evan Fraser, Professor of Geography and the Director of the Arrell Food Institute, provided a detailed overview of the barriers to the coming protein revolution and his thoughts on the future of meat. At this webinar conducted by the Agriculture Program, Evan offers answers to three important questions:

(1) Why are alternate proteins necessary?

(2) What is an alternate protein?

(3) What barriers may stand in the way of alternate protein reaching its potential?

Discussions also included topics such as precision fermentation, growing tissues, regulation, dairy-free products, economics for culture meat, and actionable recommendations for investors.

Mehrunisa Zafar, Vice President of Responsible Finance at DBS Bank’s Institution Banking Group, Luiz Mazzon, Global Program Director for Humane Farm Animal Care, and Zi Xuan Chew, Project Manager at Chew’s Agriculture, provided a detailed overview of agriculture and banking industries joint efforts to improve animal welfare globally. Discussions included topics such as DBS’s sustainability approach, Certified Humane standards, animal safety, sustainability, eco-conscious farming, responsible banking, animal welfare initiatives, and actionable recommendations for investors.

At a debt and fiscal governance program, Bryan Gurhy, Senior Financial Sector Specialist at The World Bank, Dieter Wang, Sustainable Finance Specialist at The World Bank, Marie Diron, Managing Director and ESG Project Lead at Moody’s Investors Service, and Graham Stock, Senior Sovereign Strategist for Emerging Markets at Bluebay, presented a detailed overview of ESG factors and sovereign credit ratings. The experts offered their answers to the important questions:

          Should sovereign credit analysis be treated separately from sustainability analysis?

          Or should they be treated as one set of variables with differing time horizons?

The event was moderated by Fergus McCormick, Director of Sovereign Research at EMIA.

Lindsey Marchessault, Director of Data and Engagement at the Open Contracting Partnership (OCP), presented a detailed overview of the benefits of open contracting at a debt and fiscal governance program. The presentation intended to the three important questions:

(1) why do we need to improve public contracting?

(2) what is open contracting and what are the benefits?

(3) and how can we advocate for sustained impacts?

Discussions also covered topics such as the Open Contracting Data Standard, public procurement, OCP’s initiatives, international endorsement, and recommendations for investors.

Camilla Lott, Social Performance Executive Manager at Vale, Ana Cabral-Gardner, Co-Chair and co-CEO at Sigma Lithium, Caroline Eriksen, Senior Analyst for Social Initiatives at Norges Bank IM, and Claudia Melim-McLeod, Senior Advisor for Sustainable Finance at Rainforest Foundation Norway, presented on the best practices on community consent and human rights management. The discussion covered various topics such as the challenges mining companies face with environmental regulations, human rights issues, lessons from previous community agreements, tools investors are developing to access human rights violations, and best practices for investors.

Waste from rigorous livestock farming does not get the spotlight it deserves in ESG circles. Mismanagement of animal waste is a risk to public health and a major contributor to biodiversity laws and climate change. The FAIRR Initiative, a collaborative investor network that raises awareness of the ESG risks and opportunities brought about by intensive livestock production, identified animal waste as one of eight risk factors in their recent protein index.

The Emerging Markets Investors Alliance hosted Maria Montosa, ESG analyst at FAIRR, and Max Boucher, Senior Manager of Research and Engagement at FAIRR, at an Agriculture Program to discuss animal waste and its implication for biodiversity and climate change. They provided investors with valuable recommendations to equip them with the tools they need to assess ESG risks in the food sector. The presentation also included an overview of FAIRR’s operations, the animal protein value chain, manure management, and common products currently used in the industry.

The Emerging Markets Investors Alliance had the pleasure of hosting Pamela McElwee at a Sovereign Decarbonization program. Pamela McElwee, a professor in Human Ecology at Rutgers University, provided a detailed overview of the impact of climate change and decarbonization on biodiversity. Pamela focused her presentation on the risks and challenges of supporting climate change policies that have an adverse effect on biodiversity.

The Carbon Transition Initiative aims to study the impact of climate change in emerging markets and identify best practices available to the investment community to help assess and manage climate- and transition-related risks and opportunities. To achieve this objective, the initiative focuses on a series of webinars complemented by investor research briefs on macro issues and sectors that are material to carbon transition.

The scope of this investor brief is three-fold:

● Understand the development of an emerging asset class — sustainable bonds — that enables financing of a low-carbon economy and aims to achieve positive environmental and social development outcomes;

● Identify challenges that are typical for these instruments; and

● Offer an investor checklist that can be referenced for due diligence purposes.

The capital markets segment of sustainable bonds is an emerging asset class, with its origins dating back to 2007 when the European Investment Bank issued the first Climate Awareness Bond to finance renewable energy and energy efficiency projects. Since then, the market has deepened to $3 trillion, as of 2021. We expect this asset class to grow; however, investors should be mindful of due diligence factors to evaluate sustainable bond instruments issued by three major issuers — corporates, sovereigns, and supranational organizations like The World Bank.

In this investor brief, we provide an overview of this asset sub-class and lay out important issues and recommendations investors should pay attention to given the surge in sustainable bond issuances.

Joseph Foti, Chief Research Officer at the Open Government Partnership (OGP), provided a detailed overview of emerging market investors and open government initiatives at a debt and fiscal governance webinar. The presentation focused on answering three important questions:

(1) How do open government practices improve public policy?

(2) How can investors use the OGP to advocate for governments to increase transparency, raise civic participation, and improve public accountability?

(3) And lastly, how can we improve governance by connecting policy experts to investors?

Discussions also covered topics related to OGP's history, logistics of partnerships, OGP's action plans, real-world examples, and recommendations for investors. 

Mark Robinson, Executive Director at the Extractive Industries Transparency Initiative (EITI), provided a detailed overview of the benefits of fiscal transparency in the extractives industry at a Debt and Fiscal Governance program webinar. Discussions covered topics such as the opportunities for EITI, energy transition, open extractives, and actionable recommendations for investors.

On November 16, 2021, the Emerging Markets Investors Alliance has the honor of hosting Aubrey Menard and Alexander Schay at an extractives industry program. Aubrey Menard, Senior Policy Advisor in Extractive Industries Transparency at Oxfam America, and Alexander Schay, Director of Research at Emerging Markets Investors Alliance provided a detailed overview on payment disclosures.

The Emerging Markets had the honor of hosting multiple presenters at a human rights webinar to discuss the economic consequences of LGBT discrimination. The presenters’ overview focused on Ghana’s recently introduced LGBT Bill, highlighting its political context, characteristics, and makeup. Discussions also included topics such as engagement recommendations for investors, the cost of homophobia, employee productivity, and the criminalization of identity and allyship. 

The Emerging Markets Investors Alliance had the honor of hosting Jason Mortimer at an ESG Initiative Program on November 9th, 2021. Jason Mortimer, Head of Sustainable Investment – Fixed Income and Senior Portfolio Manager at Nomura Asset Management, provided a detailed overview of ESG initiatives in emerging market sovereign debt. Discussions include topics such as Nomura’s sovereign ESG model, corporate credit ESG model, ESG product solutions, social bond market development/analysis, and actionable recommendations for investors.

Moderated by Fergus McCormick, Director of Sovereign Research at EMIA.