New green-bond issuance hit a record $78 billion in the first half of 2018, about an 11% increase from last year, suggesting the years of 50%+ growth in the market are coming to an end, according to Bloomberg New Energy Finance. Sovereign green bonds are a growing part of the market, but American and Asia-Pacific bond issues are a smaller part of the total.

Sweden's top performing bond manager, Captor Investment Management, is starting a green-bond fund to invest in environmentally friendly bonds.  

Investors are sharpening their focus on companies they say emit too much carbon. Norway's $1 trillion wealth fund and the country's Council of Ethics are considering excluding five companies from investment on the basis of an "unacceptable" level of greenhouse gas emissions. That would primarily affect the energy, cement and steel industries, since the $1 trillion fund has already sold off most of its coal holdings. Separately, the Climate Action 100+ group, representing over 225 investors with more than $26 trillion in assets, expanded the group of companies it plans to target for improved governance on climate-change policies this year, adding 61 large carbon emitters to its initial list of 100.

Tesla shares fell this week as Wall Street wondered whether its electric-car production levels are sustainable. Tesla said Model 3 output reached 5,031 in the final seven days of June, beating a 5,000-car target that CEO Elon Musk had said was crucial to generating cash and earning profit.

A coalition of 100 institutional investors including UBS, Schroders, HSBC and Amundi are backing an effort by U.K. non-profit ShareAction to ask 500 companies for improved data on diversity, workers' rights and health and safety in supply chains.

In Brief

Swedish utilities and power generators have already installed so many wind turbines that the Nordic nation is on course to reach its 2030 renewable energy target late this year  — 12 years ahead of schedule.   

Rhode Island became the first U.S. state to sue the oil industry over climate change. The state sued 21 oil and gas companies, including Exxon, BP and Shell, this week, just days after a federal judge tossed out similar suits from San Francisco and Oakland.

Batteries from the first batches of electric and hybrid vehicles are hitting retirement age. Instead of heading to landfills, they’ll spend their golden years chilling beer at 7-Elevens in Japan, powering car-charging stations in California and storing energy for homes in Europe.  

BP agreed to buy the U.K.'s Chargemaster, which operates the largest public network of electric vehicle charging points, as the energy giant seeks to tap into the growing European electric vehicles market. The deal, which was for an undisclosed sum, marks a move back into clean energy for BP, which has plans to integrate Chargemaster into its existing network of 1,200 U.K. service stations.

China's carbon emissions may have peaked.

The U.K. is weighing the first increase in fuel taxes in eight years to fund higher spending on health care.

Government agriculture policies, which channel $620 billion a year to support farmers globally, don't sufficiently address climate change, the OECD warned last week. Agriculture, together with forestry and other land use, accounts for about a quarter of the man-made greenhouse gas emissions.

Silicon Valley could get its power from giant lithium-ion batteries, as PG&E is considering replacing the region's natural gas power supply.

Millennials want diversity that's more than skin deep and are pushing companies to work on hiring employees with more diverse educational backgrounds. Corporate diversity pledges — a key tool to keep and retain young talent — are finally trickling through to products on the shelves. The latest? Mattel has introduced 17 dolls focused on careers and female role models, including Robotics Barbie.

A federal judge approved a $4 million settlement between Forest Labs and a class of 3,200 women to resolve allegations of unequal pay and sex discrimination.   

The U.S. Senate Banking Committee waded into the debate over the role of proxy advisers in advising institutional investors about how to vote their shares. While the House has passed a bill to bring proxy firms under more regulatory scrutiny, up until the June 28 hearing the Senate had not deeply considered the issue.

New York City Comptroller Scott Stringer said he's seeing a "turning point in boardroom culture" as NRG, eBay, and close to 50 other companies have changed their board makeup. They've elected a collective 59 women and minorities as directors since Stringer’s campaign launched in September, and other shareholders have also pressured companies to diversify their boards. Another 24 companies, from Intel to Union Pacific, have said they would include women and minorities in the candidate pool for each board search going forward.

Shareholder meetings at Poland's largest companies became the latest venue for the Polish government to advance its "corporate modesty" vision. Ruling-party boss Jaroslaw Kaczynski has called for the elimination of executive bonuses at state-controlled companies and has been piling pressure on companies using its minority stake.

Increasing the average number of female independent directors has a positive return on business performance, a study of Singapore-listed companies found. Women comprise about 10.8% of directors in Singapore, but a government committee is working on revising its corporate governance code to promote more diversity.