The Climate Clock is divided into two sections. The red Global Warming Deadline indicates that in order to have a chance of staying under the critical threshold of 1.5°C warming, we must achieve near zero emission in less than seven years. The blue Renewable Energy Lifeline shows the % of global energy coming from renewable sources which is rising, but not nearly fast enough.
Earth Dividend™
The Earth Dividend™ system provides an annual measure of an investment’s Sustainable Development impact.
The 5 categories of ESG themes that the Earth Dividend™ is centred around feed into 30 wider indicators which can be mapped to the UN Sustainable Development Goals. Whilst the development of the Earth Dividend™ predates the launch of the SDGs, it has a natural fit with the latter in impact terms.
The Earth Dividend™ comprises a scorecard, based upon net Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) impacts and benefits. It has been developed by Earth Capital Limited’s (ECL) in-house Sustainable Development specialists following review of international global standards and published approaches to the assessment, reporting and assurance of ESG issues and performance.
The Earth Dividend™ is established for each company as part of the due diligence process and reported annually1. Our Sustainability team works with every company to identify improvements in each area where they add value and make commercial sense. The plan targets annual improvements in the investment's contribution to sustainable development with the intention of enhancing the underlying commercial performance of the asset and help to maximise value on exit. The Earth Dividend™ uniquely enables a holistic understanding of the risk and impact of Sustainable Development; an understanding of where investments make a positive or negative impact; and, identifies those areas where a business may be made more resilient and from where more value can be extracted.
2020 Earth Dividend™ Assessment Cycle
The 2020 Earth Dividend™ assessment cycle commenced in the final quarter of 2020 and was completed in the second quarter of 2021. Earth Capital Limited’s sustainability approach requires that we undertake an external assurance exercise, as well as internal audit, of our Earth Dividend™ process to verify that we are following the process. The internal audit was completed with no material issues identified. Grant Thornton undertook the external assurance and successfully completed the work in July 2021. They have provided a Statement of Assurance in accordance with ISAE 3000 which can be viewed here. This will be the third year we have undertaken this external assurance exercise.
1Definition of company: Each operating company in which we invest other than developments projects or third party funds.
