ESG and Of Interest News


OECD urges strengthened co-operation to sustain trillion-dollar ocean economy

March 31, 2025—While the ocean economy doubled in real terms, from USD 1.3 trillion in 1995 to USD 2.6 trillion in 2020, co-ordinated policy action is essential to safeguard its long-term prosperity and sustainability, a new OECD report finds. The OECD Ocean Economy to 2050 identifies key priorities for policymakers to secure a resilient and sustainable future ocean economy, balancing economic opportunity with environmental responsibility.

Over the past 25 years, the ocean economy- driven by offshore oil and gas, marine and coastal tourism, marine fishing and aquaculture, maritime transport and port activities-contributed between 3% and 4% of global gross value added and grew steadily with no substantial contractions. But various forces - including climate change, demographic shifts, trade disruptions, and insufficient investments in productivity and green energy - could slow or even reverse growth. In a future scenario where investment in productivity is not forthcoming and the energy transition stalls, global ocean economic activity could decline by around 20% below 2020 levels by mid-century. In contrast, an accelerated shift to cleaner energy combined with technological innovation could support continued ocean economy growth, albeit more modestly than past performance.

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Source: OECD


Africa: Fast Fashion Fuelling Global Waste Crisis, UN Chief Warns

March 30, 2025-Fast fashion is accelerating an environmental catastrophe, with the equivalent of one garbage truck's worth of clothing either incinerated or sent to landfill every second, the UN chief warned on Thursday.
Speaking at an event commemorating Sunday's International Day of Zero Waste, Secretary-General António Guterres called for urgent action to curb the textile industry's devastating impact on the planet.

Braganza was speaking at the official opening of the 5th edition of the AFRODAD Media Initiative (AFROMedI) held in Sandton, Johannesburg, South Africa recently.

With half of the continent currently being in debt distress, Braganza said the need to capacitate the media for the benefit of the public and holding authorities accountable.

"Dressing to kill could kill the planet," he stressed.

The fashion industry is one of the world's most polluting sectors, responsible for up to eight per cent of global greenhouse gas emissions.

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Source: allafrica.com


'Renewables are renewing economies', UN chief tells top climate forum

March 26, 2025-2025 marks a milestone: the tenth anniversary of the Paris Agreement and the deadline for countries to submit their updated Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs), designed to keep the global goal alive of limiting temperature rise to 1.5℃C above pre-industrial levels.

Addressing the 16th Petersberg Climate Dialogue (PCD) in Berlin-the first official gathering on climate since last year's COP29 summit in Baku-the UN Secretary-General António Guterres issued a strong call for decisive climate action.

He said the year had begun against a backdrop of geopolitical instability and widespread cuts to overseas aid budgets.

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Source: news.un.org


How DeepSeek has changed artificial intelligence and what it means for Europe

March 20, 2025--By mid-2024, artificial intelligence large language models (LLMs) were running into diminishing returns to scale in training data and computational capacity. LLM training began to shift away from costly pre-training to cheaper fine-tuning and allowing LLMs to 'reason' for longer before replying to questions.

Fine-tuning uses chain-of-thought (CoT) training data that includes questions and the logical steps to reach correct answers. This increases the efficiency of learning for smaller AI models, such as DeepSeek. CoT data can be extracted from large 'teacher' LLMs to train small 'student, models.

These changes shift the cost structure of AI models from high pre-training costs to lower fine-tuning costs for model developers and more inference costs for users.

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Source: bruegel.org


IMF-Driving Change: Women-Led Economics

March 10, 2025-Summary
The developing world's vibrant research in the face of limited resources offers valuable global insights
For too long, Western institutions have shaped empirical research and policy recommendations. Authors based in developing economies have a far too small footprint in top economics journals.

They account for only 7 percent of articles in the top 10 journals of the profession, as Ernest Aigner, Jacob Greenspon, and I show in a forthcoming paper, even though their collective weight in the world economy exceeds 60 percent (measured by their global GDP share at purchasing power parity). The representation of women economists on all fronts is lower still.Even when research is published, getting it noticed is a major challenge. Promoting research within academic circles is one thing; bringing it to wider attention is quite another. Translating research findings into tangible policy requires sustained engagement with policymakers and the public-a demanding process that competes with researchers' limited time and resources. This creates a difficult balance: While researchers face pressure to produce new work, the crucial task of ensuring that existing research influences policy often remains underfunded and undervalued.

Global relevance

Empirical research produced in developing economies is not only locally relevant but also holds critical insights for global challenges. From climate adaptation to conflict resolution, pressing world issues first manifest intensely in developing regions.

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Source: imf.org


F&D: Reconnecting Morality with Political Economy

March 5, 2025-Putting moral insight back into economics enhances understanding of political outcomes
For much of the 20th century, the disciplines of moral psychology and economics were seen as distinct-each focused on separate concerns, with little cross-pollination. This wasn't always the case.
If we look back to philosophers such as Adam Smith and Karl Marx, discussions of political economy were deeply intertwined with questions of morality.

More recently, these fields have started to reconnect, recognizing that morality influences economic behavior, and vice versa, in profound ways.

It’s something I discussed in a recent review of the latest literature in this field (2024).

As an economist, I believe this growing intersection offers valuable lessons not only for academia but also for policymakers grappling with today's biggest challenges, such as greater inequality, political polarization, and diminishing trust in institutions.

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Source: imf.org


Half of world's CO2 emissions come from 36 fossil fuel firms, study shows

March 5, 2025-Researchers say data strengthens case for holding firms to account for their contribution to climate crisis
Half of the world's climate-heating carbon emissions come from the fossil fuels produced by just 36 companies, analysis has revealed.

The researchers said the 2023 data strengthened the case for holding fossil fuel companies to account for their contribution to global heating. Previous versions of the annual report have been used in legal cases against companies and investors.

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Source: theguardian.com


Carbon Majors: 2023 Data Update March 2025

March 5, 2025-Executive Summary
Carbon Majors traces 33.9 GtCO2e of emissions to the 169 active entities in the database in 2023, a 0.7% increase from 2022. The CO2 emissions in the database accounted for 78.4% of global fossil fuel and cement CO2 emissions in 2023, with just 36 companies linked to over half of these global emissions.

Carbon Majors is a database of historical production data from 180 of the world's largest oil, gas, coal, and cement producers representing 169 active and 11 inactive entities. This data is used to quantify the direct production-linked operational emissions and emissions from the combustion of marketed products that can be attributed to these entities.

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Source: carbonmajors.org


How Animal Spirits Affect the Economy

March 3, 2025—Viral narratives could be the missing link between emotions and economic fluctuations
Storytelling is central to how we interpret economic events. We recall economic history through haunting images of anxious crowds waiting to take money out of banks during the Great Depression or dejected office workers carrying cardboard boxes out of Lehman Brothers in 2008.

We gauge inflation by comparing shopping baskets with friends and family. We grapple with the consequences of artificial intelligence by channeling our hopes and fears into science fiction.

Storytelling is central to how we interpret economic events. We recall economic history through haunting images of anxious crowds waiting to take money out of banks during the Great Depression or dejected office workers carrying cardboard boxes out of Lehman Brothers in 2008. We gauge inflation by comparing shopping baskets with friends and family. We grapple with the consequences of artificial intelligence by channeling our hopes and fears into science fiction.

But do stories themselves influence the economy? This idea has a long precedent in economic thought. John Maynard Keynes wrote extensively about how "animal spirits"-nstincts and emotions that influence behavior-prompt people's economic actions, like spending or investing in businesses. He argued that these herd emotional urges lie at the heart of economic booms and busts.

Taking this idea one step further, Robert Shiller, an economist at Yale University, has pushed for a more detailed study of economic narratives-the contagious stories that shape how individuals view the economy and make decisions. Shiller hypothesizes that sufficiently popular narratives can go viral and have society-wide impact (Shiller 2020).

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Source: IMF.org


Trump's latest global tariffs, announced on a self-proclaimed 'Liberation Day', will likely cause sharp short-term trade declines-and a significant surge in inflation for the US

March 3, 2025—On 2 April 2025 - his self-proclaimed 'Liberation Day' - President Donald Trump once again announced new tariffs. This time, all US trade partners will face a minimum 'discounted reciprocal tariff' of 10%. For countries with trade surpluses deemed guilty of 'currency manipulation and trade barriers', tariffs could rise to nearly 50%. Southeast Asian export-driven economies will particularly be affected. Major trading partners-such as China (34%), the EU (20%) and Japan (24%)-will face intermediate rates, although they are extremely high by historical standards.

Regarding China, the official White House communication is unclear, but Trump's press secretary indicated that these new tariffs are in addition to previously imposed and announced measures. The UK and several other countries will be subject to the 'baseline' 10% tariff. For Canada and Mexico, the situation is more complex, as previous fentanyl- and migration-related tariffs will remain in effect. Additionally, tariffs on goods already targeted (e.g. steel, aluminium and cars) will stay in place. Exemptions include inter alia copper, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber as well as energy imports and certain minerals that are not available in the US.

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Source: The Vienna Institute for International Economic Studies


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Americas


July 11, 2025 RMB Investors Trust files with the SEC
July 11, 2025 Mutual Fund Series Trust files with the SEC
July 11, 2025 Simplify Exchange Traded Funds files with the SEC-Simplify Government Money Market ETF
July 11, 2025 Tortoise Capital Series Trust files with the SEC-Tortoise Global Water Fund
July 11, 2025 EA Series Trust files with the SEC-Towle Value ETF

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Europe ETF News


July 02, 2025 Valour Launches Eight New ETPs on Spotlight Stock Market, Including Bitcoin Cash (BCH), Unus Sed Leo (LEO), OKB (OKB), Polygon (POL), Algorand (ALGO), Filecoin (FIL), Arbitrum (ARB), and Stacks (STX)
June 16, 2025 ESMA's activities in 2024 focused on strengthening the EU capital markets and putting citizens and businesses at the heart of it
June 12, 2025 Janus Henderson launches active fixed income ETF
June 12, 2025 ifo Institute Raises Growth Forecast for Germany
June 10, 2025 ESMA publishes latest edition of its newsletter

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Asia ETF News


July 02, 2025 Fujitsu to develop ETF trading platform based on TSE's CONNEQTOR and provide it to Australian Securities Exchange
June 25, 2025 QFIIs Gain Access to Onshore ETF Options As A-share Market Opening Deepens
June 18, 2025 Mirae Asset Global Investments Launches MIRAE ASSET TIGER CHINA GLOBAL LEADERS TOP3 PLUS ETF, Tracking Solactive-KEDI China Global Leaders TOP3Plus Index

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Global ETP News


July 07, 2025 WTO issues new edition of World Tariff Profiles
July 03, 2025 Flow Traders-Tokenization in Capital Markets: A Market Maker's Perspective
June 14, 2025 Global Economic Prospects-Global Economy Faces Trade-Related Headwinds

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Middle East ETP News


June 19, 2025 GCC: Growth on the Rise, but Smart Spending Will Shape a Thriving Future
June 16, 2025 Saudi Exchange leads market losses across the GCC

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Africa ETF News


July 04, 2025 South Africa: African Development Bank Country Focus Report highlights urgent need for economic transformation as GDP growth remains subdued
July 01, 2025 Africa's Trade Projected to Hit $1.5 Trillion in 2025
June 26, 2025 National stock exchange launched in Somalia
June 24, 2025 East Africa's regional 20 share index
June 16, 2025 African Credit Rating Agency to Launch September 2025

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