Listen to the thoughts of a leading European climate VC who are targeting a gigatonne impact in emissions reductions through investing in early stage climate startups and cutting edge innovations within the Energy, carbon removal, insurance, food systems and other sectors.

Materiality was again in the spotlight recently with launch of IFRS sustainability disclosure standards S1 & S2. Whilst the standards were generally welcomed as a significant step in creating a global baseline for corporate sustainability disclosures grounded in the best practices of accounting standards it was seen as controversial in some quarters. In a large part this was due to its approach to dealing with materiality and more specifically ‘double materiality’ — something largely avoided in the standards according to critics. Proponents highlight the mantra that “what can be measured can be managed” when suggesting that focusing on single materiality / materiality should be the priority for disclosing organisations and is thus the focus of these standards. Double materiality encompasses not just sustainability risks which impact a company’s financial performance but the degree to which that company’s products and activities impact the wider world — a philosophy more adopted in European standards such as in the work of EFRAG.

Over 400 ESG funds run by asset managers such as Blackrock, State Street and Northern Trust are financing commodity traders who are linked to deforestation, according to analysis by Trase Finance.