ESG now MSCI ESG Research LLC

COVID‐19 vaccines have been administrated to select groups in certain countries. But we need to vaccinate a large part of the world in order to emerge from the shadow of the pandemic. In this episode we discuss how low‐income countries are being left behind in the rush to vaccinate. And then, we discuss the lackluster auction by the Trump administration for oil and gas leases in the Artic refuge.

As 2020 comes to a skidding halt, we throw a glittery holiday lens over innovative and hopeful developments in energy and food. While 2021 may see restaurant giants trying to scoop up market share, a shifting social fabric will make things trickier. And yes, Santa's emissions make for sober reading, but offer a sliver of hope too.

Special guest, Tim McCourt from CME Group joins us this week to discuss their launch of the first ever water futures based on the Nasdaq Veles California Water Index. We discuss how the water future might affect water efficiency and water scarcity. And then we discuss the new proposal by the Nasdaq stock exchange to adopt new listing rules related to board diversity and disclosure.

We talked about an interactive chart in this episode, the link to it is here: https://www.msci.com/our-solutions/esg-investing/2021-esg-trends-to-watch/climate-reality-bites-paris. But the episode is not about an interactive chart. It is about how two similar oil and gas companies are facing two different revolts ‐ one internal and one external ‐ caused by the same problems: climate change and carbon emissions.

Pfizer‐BioNTech, Moderna and Oxford‐Astra Zeneca are all looking to roll out COVID‐19 vaccines after successful phase 3 trials. Amid the hope of locked down populations, we look at the ESG risks of what’s coming next. Meanwhile, although the pandemic has created an e-commerce boom for South Korea’s logistics companies, delivery workers are bearing the burden of competition. And finally, we walk through some of the longer-term forces moulding governance practices at banks.

We downgraded Facebook from a BBB to a B; but why? Well, it has to do with a little something called governance, and the fact that we revamped how we assess governance in our ESG ratings model. Today, we discuss the Facebook downgrade and the changes to how we assess corporate governance in our ESG ratings model.