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The introduction of new naming guidelines for ESG funds by the EU supervisory authority ESMA on May 21 should finally provide more clarity for consumers. A new analysis by Finanzwende, Urgewald and Facing Finance shows that instead of making their portfolios more sustainable and dropping shares in fossil fuel companies, many providers have simply renamed their funds. 

Today, on the occasion of the UBS Annual General Meeting, an alliance of climate and human rights organizations is protesting in front of the venue, the Lucerne Exhibition Centre (Messe Luzern). The following organizations are participating: Klimastreik Zentralschweiz, urgewald, Protect-VIP-Network, the collective BreakFree Schweiz and the Klima-Allianz Schweiz. 

Days before the UBS Annual General Meeting, a civil society alliance is drawing attention to the major Swiss bank's investment policy in the Philippines. UBS is one of the biggest institutional investors in the Philippine conglomerate San Miguel. The group plans to significantly expand the capacity of its domestic coal and gas-fired power plants. In doing so, it is hindering the Philippines’ energy transition, a country with remarkable renewable energy potential. 

Because Greenpeace USA showed solidarity with protests against the highly controversial Dakota Access Pipeline, the oil company behind the project, Energy Transfer (ET), sued the environmental organization. As a result, a North Dakota jury reached a verdict and a judge in the first instance found Greenpeace USA liable for $660 million worth of damages. The case is obviously a SLAPP suit (“Strategic Lawsuit against Public Participation”) which ET filed to silence a strong voice critical of its climate-wrecking business.

Extensive financial research by NGOs Urgewald and Facing Finance has uncovered massive greenwashing in European ESG funds, also known as Article 8 and Article 9 funds. More than 14,000 ESG funds traded in European markets were analyzed. Well over one-third (4,792 funds) invested more than EUR 123 billion in companies actively pushing fossil fuel expansion projects or lacking a credible Paris-aligned coal phase-out plan.

Today, Urgewald and 10 NGO partners published the first Metallurgical Coal Exit List (MCEL), a public database of coal companies which are expanding their met coal mining activities. “Hundreds of financial institutions are already using our Global Coal Exit List (GCEL) to restrict their financial flows to the thermal coal sector. The MCEL is a new sister database that focuses exclusively on metallurgical coal and highlights which companies are planning new met coal mines or extensions. Financial institutions need to wake up and stop bankrolling the reckless expansion of this industry,” says Heffa Schuecking, Director of Urgewald.