Archive for April 2021
What lessons can electric vehicle manufacturers learn from Hyundai’s costly recall?
On 24th February, Hyundai announced the recall of over 82,000 electric vehicles, at a cost of 900 million USD, in what has been deemed the most expensive recall of electric vehicles to date. The recall was made after a fault related to the battery pack caused vehicle fires, which raised concerns over customer safety. Despite…
Read MoreDoes Nuclear-Power Generation still have a Role to Play in the Future of Clean Energy?
On March 11th, 2011, an earthquake of magnitude 9.0 – 9.1 MW struck the North Eastern Coast of Japan, triggering tsunami waves that reached up to 40.5 metres. The force and the height of these waves caused mass destruction; the tsunami infiltrated the mainland resulting in approximately 15,000 deaths, whilst flooding the Fukushima Daiichi power…
Read MoreEU taking their first step to wash away greenwashing from within financial institutions
The new Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulations (SFDR), which came into effect on March 10th, will impact financial institutions, EU entities, and Non-EU entities that have EU subsidiaries. These new obligations aim to reduce greenwashing by requiring firms to disclose how sustainable they are and reveal comparable metrics related to their sustainability. The new SFDR will…
Read MoreIOSCO commits to a Global Sustainability Standards Board
Last week the International Organisation of Securities Commissions Organisation (IOSCO), a global association of regulatory agencies for securities, reiterated their support for developing a global framework for sustainability standards. In a recent media release, they recognised the need for “globally consistent, comparable, and reliable sustainability disclosure standards” and introduced their plan to develop a Sustainability…
Read MoreBP: Sustainability Leaders or Snake Oil Salesmen?
CERAWeek by IHS Market, an annual global energy conference based in Texas, convened on March 1st, 2021 with a renewed focus on the ongoing green energy transition. The decarbonisation trend has, in recent years, largely eluded the oil and gas industry, leading to a decline in share prices for traditional multinationals such as Royal Dutch…
Read MoreThe Big Bang 2.0
Under Margaret Thatcher’s government in the mid 1980s, the City of London underwent a wave of financial deregulation, including the abolition of fixed commission charges and the movement to an entirely electronic system of share trading. 35 years later, in early 2021, a report conducted by Lord Jonathan Hill and commissioned by the UK Chancellor…
Read MoreThe Story of Greensill Capital’s Collapse
Greensill Capital, the supply chain financing firm, recently filed for administration, citing “severe financial distress” which meant the company could not repay a 140 million USD loan from Credit Suisse. Greensill’s own lawyers have warned that as a result of the collapse many of the firm’s corporate clients could also become insolvent, which risks over…
Read MoreSuper Bowl LV – An Advertising Minefield
The Super Bowl is the biggest advertising event of the year, with companies paying as much as 5.5 million USD for just 30 seconds of airtime during the game to showcase the very best creativity that their marketing team has to offer. However, mentions of the Super Bowl have been down 78% this year on…
Read MoreDeliveroo’s IPO intentions
On March 15th, 2021, Deliveroo confirmed its intention to undertake an initial public offering (IPO) on the London Stock Exchange (LSE). With the last round of private funding providing a valuation of over 5 billion GBP, and rumours of a 7 billion GBP valuation target, the transaction has the potential to become one of the…
Read MoreWhat is causing the disparities in UK house prices indices?
Building society Nationwide has reported that the average UK house price grew by 0.7% in the month of February 2021, resulting in annual growth of 6.9%, which is among the fastest rates seen in the past five years. In contrast, Halifax Bank found that the average UK house price decreased in February compared with the…
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