“Behold, my child, the Nordic man, and be as like him as you can,” exhorted Hilaire Belloc in Talking (and Singing) of the Nordic man.
That was before “Taking the Temperature“, a recent report from Insight Investment and Ethix SRI Advisors, found the 40 largest companies in the Nordic region are lagging significantly behind their European peers in their management of climate change risks and opportunities.
Am I the only one who thought, along with Belloc, the Nordic region was full of hearty outdoor types who would understand the importance of climate change? Apparently, although the companies surveyed are trying to sort out their governance and management with respect to climate change, most of them expect to increase their greenhouse gas emissions in the future.
It is particularly ironic given the commitment of the Norwegian government pension fund to ethical and sustainable investment. Clearly the domestic fund, which invests solely in Norwegian securities, has failed to demand sufficient of its investee companies.
