A new report from the nonprofit Planet Tracker is urging banks and investors to price the hidden risk of unsustainable operations by Japanese seafood companies into their lending decisions.
Planet Tracker is a project of Investor Watch, a nonprofit company with the goal of encouraging impact investing, or aligning capital markets with social and ecological sustainability. Mark Campanale, a co-founder of Investor Watch, formerly worked for asset management companies and was involved in the creation of several responsible investment funds. He also provided input to the current report.
Planet Tracker is a follow-on to a couple of previous projects, including the Carbon Tracker Initiative and the Fish Tracker Initiative. The Carbon Tracker Initiative suggested tighter regulations and a shift in the market would add risk to investments in carbon-emitting energy. The initiative urged divestment from carbon-burning energy companies and a commitment to fund renewable energy projects. This was followed by the Fish Tracker Initiative, which argued that publicly listed companies were doing a poor job of disclosing risks to investors, such as depletion of resources, tighter regulations, and loss of reputation or fines stemming from unsustainable practices.
Planet Trackers scored a victory in 2014, when Greenpeace claimed that China Tuna Industry Group Holdings Ltd (CTI) had understated the environmental and sustainability risks of the company’s operations, and provided outdated information to investors in the draft prospectus of its IPO application. CTI had aimed to raise up to USD 150 million (EUR 134.3 million) to expand its fishing fleet targeting bigeye tuna. The Hong Kong Stock Exchange suspended the IPO immediately and the company later withdrew its IPO application.
The current report is titled Perfect Storm Profits at Risk in the Japanese Seafood Industry. Japan was chosen as the subject of the report because it is such an important player in seafood markets and because 2018 reforms to the country’s Fisheries Act indicate a willingness from the Japanese government to address sustainability issues.
2019 Diversified Communications