ESG Out Loud ESG Out Loud

In this episode of the ESG Clarity podcast, ESG Out Loud, reporter Holly Downes talks to Eleanor Harry, chief executive of HACE, about their AI-powered Child Labour Index.

Today, there are 160 million children in child labour globally between the ages of five and 17, of which 78 million are working in hazardous conditions. With the help of artificial intelligence (AI), HACE helps investors monitor the risk of child labour in their portfolios.

Harry reveals why child labour is a standalone risk, how AI can be a tool to drive positive change, and how consumer pressure – particularly among the ‘sustainability generation’ – is pushing investors to track child labour.

Todd Cort, faculty director of Yale University’s sustainability program, is expecting an "explosion of unpriced information", which he said active asset managers will use to outperform markets.

Alongside this, the needle is being moved back towards ESG-oriented funds and financial regulators are in the process of standardising climate information and disclosures, which should move markets quickly in 2024 and beyond.

Cort also shares why the language around fossil fuels to come out of COP28 was "monumental", but explains why COP outcomes tend to fizzle out.

Holly Downes speaks to youth groups and climate activists about what they want to see from the conference this year and their messages for the investment industry.

Former Bank of England senior adviser Michael Sheren discusses the shortfalls of voluntary frameworks, COP28, planetary boundaries and why carbon is not priced in.

Former minister and chair of the UK Net Zero Review joins the podcast to discuss the UK's recent offshore wind auction, giving confidence to the investment industry and his hopes for net zero in the Autumn Statement.

TCFD secretariat member Curtis Ravenel joins the podcast to discuss the 18-month project that ran eight years, why it was time to wind up and what "thorny problems" are next on the agenda.