ESG Currents

As climate volatility intensifies, water risk is becoming a critical — and often mispriced — factor in investment decisions, particularly across agriculture and real assets. In this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Bloomberg Intelligence’s Melanie Rua speaks with Catherine Burns of The Nature Conservancy’s NatureVest team and Alyssa Go of RRG Capital Management about how institutional capital is integrating water and climate resilience into investment strategies. They discuss the $900 million Sustainable Water Impact Fund, how nature-based infrastructure can reduce financial risk and what signals could indicate that water risk is being properly priced.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Private markets are becoming an increasingly important frontier for sustainable investing, with mounting interest among allocators and a rapidly evolving landscape. But where are the real opportunities — and how can investors separate substance from storytelling? In this episode of ESG Currents, Northern Trust Asset Management’s Head of Multi-Asset Custom Solutions, Dee Sharma, joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ESG Analyst Shaheen Contractor to explore how sustainability is evolving in private markets. They discuss the themes gaining traction and those losing momentum, and what separates credible strategies from box-ticking. They also examine where risks may be mispriced and how demand can evolve over the next five years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Plastic waste is a mounting challenge around the globe, but nuance required to understand and manage plastic is often ignored. On this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Svanika Balasubramanian, founder and chief circularity officer of rePurpose Global, joins BI senior integration analyst Gail Glazerman to discuss the scale of the problem, potential key performance indicators (KPIs) to assess plastic exposure and strategies to make solutions profitable enough to attract an estimated $5 trillion in capital required by 2040. This conversation was recorded Feb. 18.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Insurance is essential for the carbon-credit market to unlock capital, manage risk and build trust. On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Natalia Dorfman, CEO and co-founder of Kita, joins Eric Kane, director of ESG research at Bloomberg Intelligence, to discuss how her company provides insurance products that aim to unlock institutional investment for high-integrity carbon removal and natural-capital projects. They discuss some of Kita’s key offerings and dive into how they account for the nuances and challenges of these projects, including duration, value and monitoring. They also explore policy developments in the EU, the ramp-up of Article 6 projects and why Dorfman thinks 2026 is the year insurance will come in to handle the complex challenge of carbon-credit permanence. This episode was recorded on Feb. 9.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Mangroves are one of the most powerful natural tools for climate adaptation and resilience, protecting coastlines, stabilizing economies and strengthening ecosystems. On this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Ignace Beguin Billecocq, executive director of the Mangrove Breakthrough, joins BI senior ESG credit analyst Chris Ratti. The Mangrove Breakthrough is a global initiative aiming to secure the future of 15 million hectares of mangroves by 2030 through a $4 billion investment to foster resilience, biodiversity and coastal protection. They discuss the materiality of mangroves and the importance of funding for expansion across a coalition of beneficiaries including governments, multilateral development banks, insurance companies and climate investors.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Can cutting methane leaks help fuel the rising energy demand from AI data centers? On this episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Carl Pope, former Sierra Club executive director, and Last Mile Production CEO Zach Wagner join BI climate analyst Andrew Stevenson to discuss how leaking and vented methane has the potential to help meet Texas’ surging power demand. Methane leaks are a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, and capturing that lost gas could help ease rising US natural gas costs.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Blended finance uses catalytic capital from public or philanthropic sources to mobilize private investment toward sustainable development — but how are these vehicles structured, and what enables them to scale? On this week’s episode of the ESG Currents podcast, Timothee Jaulin, head of responsible investment development & advocacy at Amundi, joins Shaheen Contractor, senior ESG analyst at Bloomberg Intelligence, to unpack how blended finance works in practice. The discussion breaks down how blended finance vehicles are structured — from the roles of DFIs and asset managers to tranche design, capital layering and the realities of deployment timelines. They also explore how risk is allocated and mitigated via credit enhancements, guarantees and political risk insurance — and who is driving demand today, from multilateral developmental banks to family offices, as Asia emerges as a key growth market.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

The build-out of power-hungry data centers is coinciding with new roadblocks for solar and wind farms under the Trump administration, raising the risk of an electricity supply squeeze. In this episode of Bloomberg Intelligence’s ESG Currents podcast, senior climate analyst Andrew John Stevenson speaks with Simcore Partners’ Dan Lee about the path forward for renewables beyond this year’s subsidy sunset amid rising AI-driven power demand. They discuss project-delay risks and grid-congestion concerns, and how renewables may continue to play a meaningful role in the coming years.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Amid a wave of political pressure in recent years, investors have faced greater barriers to engaging with companies, particularly on environmental and social issues. But engagement remains an important tool for identifying and mitigating risks that could hurt long-term shareholder value. On this week’s edition of ESG Currents, senior ESG analyst Rob Du Boff speaks with Andrea Ranger, director of shareholder advocacy for Trillium Asset Management, a long-standing thought leader in ESG investing with around $5 billion in assets under management. They discuss the importance of investment stewardship, why it remains a critical fiduciary duty and how it can be done effectively. This episode was recorded on Dec. 15.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

AI can be a force for good in climate and technology, says Rama Variankaval, Global Head of Corporate Advisory at JPMorgan. In this episode of ESG Currents, Variankaval joins Bloomberg Intelligence Senior ESG Analyst Shaheen Contractor to examine the sustainability themes likely to shape corporate strategy in 2026 and beyond, including AI, energy, adaptation and food security. They discuss how boards are navigating green investments amid tighter capital conditions, changing risk perceptions and the collision between AI-driven growth and energy-system limits.See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.