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The winners of the ‘Insight Investment – University of Oxford Prize for Greening Finance’, the preeminent prize for this important area of research and practice, have been announced for 2024. The prizes, for Outstanding Service and Outstanding Research, recognise research and service that helps society better understand how environmental change influences finance and investment, and how economic and financial systems can contribute to achieving global environmental sustainability. 

IFA Magazine covers the annual Greening Finance Prize, established through a generous endowment by Insight Investment. The 2024 winners are Emmanuel Faber, Chair of the International Sustainability Standards Board and formerly the Chair and Chief Executive Officer of Danone, and Professor Rob Bauer, Professor of Finance (Chair of Institutional Investors) at Maastricht University.

In this commentary for Responsible Investor, Ben Caldecott writes that introducing legal requirements for companies to achieve net zero could dramatically accelerate climate action, and explores the crucial role of financial institutions. 

As the climate crisis accelerates, the Net Zero Stocktake 2024 identifies a commitment gap across cities, states and regions, which is holding back the necessary economy-wide transition. Dr Steve Smith commented: "Fewer than 5% of all the pledges by cities, regions and companies meet all our criteria for integrity. That number has risen by just 1% since last year. But there are a few bright spots of leadership around the world. Ambitious and honest action is possible. We point to examples in our report, with the hope that there will be many more in the near future."

Ben Caldecott, founding Director of the Oxford Sustainable Finance Group and the Lombard Odier
Associate Professor of Sustainable Finance, explores the 'necessary and inevitable' transition from voluntary to mandatory climate commitments in this op-ed for Business Green. 

The University of Oxford and the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights will host the 2025 Right Here, Right Now Global Climate Summit. The event will bring together renowned experts and leaders, policymakers, technologists and academics, including Professor Mette Morsing, Dr Radhika Khosla and Dr Ben Franta, to advance climate justice through human rights solutions to the climate crisis.

Vanity Fair Italia reports on Imaginarium, an annual event at the headquarters of the Riccardo Catella Foundation, where Smith School HRA Giulio Boccaletti delivered a talk against “blue washing” - commercial practices that exploit the issue of water sustainability.

Dr Sugandha Srivastav told Science Business that cheap solar power could have come much sooner, if it weren't for a lack of investment in previous decades. The article cites her thought experiment on George Cove, the early 20th century solar entrepreneur who was allegedly kidnapped and told to cease his operations.  

Nature India examines results of recent studies on climate change perception, including comment from Radhika Khosla. 

Kaya Axelsson and Solitaire Townsend discuss how the current carbon compliance regime “fails to reward systemic efforts by entrepreneurial companies” to tackle climate change. “In fact, firms may even be penalized for busting their own corporate carbon budget when developing solutions that will help the world meet net zero.”

Ben Caldecott talks to BBC Farming Today about the diversity of schemes to pay for environmental outcomes such as nature recovery in the UK, including the challenges of making sure these work as expected.