This Week in ESG and Impact Investing

    Sameh Shoukry, president of the COP27 climate summit, receives a standing ovation following a speech during the closing plenary session at the U.N. Climate Summit, Sunday, Nov. 20, 2022, in Sharm el-Sheikh, Egypt. (AP Photo/Peter Dejong) At the 27th General Assembly of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change ( COP27 ), the creation of a fund to compensate developing countries for "loss and damage" due to climate change was approved. COP27 closed on the 20th of November (local time) after adopting the final agreement, the " Sharm el-Sheikh Implementation Plan ," two days after the original closing date. The general meeting was held in Egypt on the African continent, which has been severely damaged by global warming (extreme drought), factors like "adaptation" and "loss and damage" were discussed as the biggest issues between developed and developing countries. At the general meeting, developing countries de

         As a designated member of the "Gen Z" generation, I recently attended an event put on by The Hill Newspaper focused on my age group - "Gen Z: Writing Their Own Rules" in Washington, D.C. The event focused on young people of the New Millennium and their activities. Among the speakers, there was actually a woman who belonged to Gen Z and she led the discussion quite realistically and honestly. The speaker indicated that "Gen Z is more passionate than any other generation. That's why Gen. Z is interested in politics, economics, and culture, and that's why young people's voices have grown. As an example, the number of political demonstrations has also increased." In contrast, the Gen Z discussant said he was the most sensitive to the way others see him. There is more exposure to social media than any other generation. Perhaps that's why Gen Z said he thought his own space and time should be cherished and protected.   Society has his

Given the current status of the midterm election, it appears likely, but not certain, that Republicans will control the House. If so, this means Rep. Patrick McHenry, R-N.C., currently ranking member of the House Financial Services Committee, will  become chairman. Overall, this change will be negative for the country. Regulatory agencies most at risk include the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), given Sen. Elizabeth Warren's role in creating the agency and in light of the fact that an appeals court ruled the CFPB’s funding mechanism  unconstitutional: "A three-judge panel of the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that the design of the CFPB violated the Constitution because it receives funding through the Federal Reserve, rather than appropriations legislation passed by Congress." As a matter of turf, McHenry is likely to support bringing the agency under congressional funding procedures, as broken as these are. We also expect the Securities and Exchange

It's easy to see that right now, whether it's in politics or in the environment, there is a gap between the visions of the youth and older people. This is not a new phenomenon: these groups have always had different ideas and seen the world differently. However, with all that is going on in our time (climate change and political polarization), these two sets of vision generale some problems. Take climate change for example. There is a clear disconnection between what young people and old people think. Let me explain: young people tend to see the consequences of climate change. This is normal, since they are the ones who will live with these consequences. On the other hand, older people see global warming as less of a problem and tend to be more concerned with a problem closer to them, the economy. They overestimate the importance of the economy to the point of making it a more important than the environment and climate change. This is curious, because usually it is young people

  At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, November 4th, the Biden administration bookended a long week of public briefings with their White House Faith Economic Briefing. Since this hearing was meant to appeal to a demographic that tends to gravitate towards the other end of the political spectrum, it is unsurprising that the briefing garnered a smaller crowd than some of the others.  As for the briefing itself, it appears that Biden's press team has taken steps in the right direction in terms of using technology. The transitions between speakers became smoother as the week went on, and that trend continued with this event. There were far fewer mishaps, no speaker seemed unqualified, and the content was solid. The problem with that solid content, however, is that it was largely recycled from earlier briefings. The talking points were identical to those from prior conferences. Briefings earlier in the week touched on specific accomplishments, highlighting progress they’ve made in climate change

In recent days, the White House has been very busy with press briefings, likely due in part to a desire to increase Democratic turnout before midterm voting concludes on November 8th. On November 2nd, following the White House Women's Economic Briefing (which Creative Investment Research has summarized, somewhat more critically here ) , the White House held the Youth Economic Briefing. Later that same day, at 3:30, the White House African American Community Economic Briefing took place. Creative Investment Research has been critical of the way these events have been carried out, but it must be noted that recent briefings have seen significant improvement. The Youth Economic Briefing was certainly a step up from events directly preceding it, and the African American Community Economic Briefing saw another step up in quality. In this conference, there were calls to action and the briefing, although still quite self-congratulatory, was more informative than past events. Th

      A crowd surge accident occurred at a Halloween celebration around 10 p.m. on Saturday, October 29 in South Korea. The Itaewon disaster is believed to have been caused by increasing crowd pressure as people could not stop walking while being driven downhill (in terms of the local terrain). Most of the victims were in their 10s and 20s, with 155 deaths and 156 injuries.  Yongsan Police Station requested support from Seoul City Hall but did not receive a reply, this despite 112 reports that came in starting at 4 p.m. on the same day. Many of these were detailed reports: "It is on the verge of crushing, requesting control, and one-way traffic,". But the police did not respond quickly. Media reports suggesting the deployment of 200 police officers in Itaewon were disprove, and corrected to report only 136 police officers deployed, and they were sent to crack down on drug use.  When asked about reports that 136 people who were at the scene asked for support, the police depa

On November 1, 2022 , at 12:30 pm EST, the White House hosted the “Women’s Economic Briefing.” This served as an information session regarding the Biden Administration's approach to issues pertaining to women. As is always the case with White House Briefings, the agenda consisted of several speakers, each honing in on their area of expertise. They touched on different issues, with the only real tie being the focus on issues that primarily affect women. Compared to recent White House briefings, this event was slightly less self-congratulatory, but not necessarily more informative. While it got better as it went on, with more competent speakers in the second half, the event also had speakers who simply did not belong in a White House event. The meeting also lacked a clear call to action, (aside from the unspoken urging of attendees to vote blue in the midterms) and was not thematically consistent despite a clearly laid out agenda. No meeting in the Biden Administration would be compl