© . A boardroom is seen in an office building in Manhattan, New York City, New York, US, May 24, 2021. REUTERS/Andrew Kelly By Federica Urso and Simon Jessop LONDON () – Companies with more women on their boards are more likely to on track to meet global climate targets, analysis by investment research and asset manager Arabesque showed on Tuesday. The study, the first to tackle the subject, found that the most diverse 20% of the world’s 1,000 largest companies were more aligned with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C by 2050 (2 .7 Fahrenheit) above the pre-industrial average. target is crucial to prevent irreversible damage to the planet, UN scientists say. Across the group, including , the Italian MIB, the , , , and the Scandinavian OMX, 75% of the more diverse companies met 1.5C. Arabesque said it gave each company a diversity score by looking at data such as board diversity and diversity goals, and a temperature score after verifying that the company’s climate plans were on track to support the goal. Barbara Krumsiek, Arabesque board member and former CEO of asset manager Calvert Investments, said the data showed a strong correlation and supported academic studies on the matter. “So far, all the data I see reinforces the original premise that diversity and environmental performance are linked,” Krumsiek said. Conversely, 37% of firms in the least diverse 20% of firms were heading for a worst-case trajectory of 2.7C or higher, and most did not disclose meaningful data, the survey found. “For investors, lack of disclosure should be a red flag,” Krumsiek said. The data from companies underlying the analysis has been collected in the ESG Book, a digital source of sustainability data backed by some of the world’s top investors, regulators and companies. The data showed mixed progress on diversity between 2017 and 2021. Nearly all of the companies analyzed had committed to diversity policies, but far fewer set concrete diversity goals, Arabesque said. In the UK, 54% of companies in the FTSE 100 now had diversity targets, up just under a quarter from 2017, while the percentage of the largest US companies with concrete targets nearly tripled to 47% over the period. Italy’s top companies had the lowest percentage of diversity targets at 35% but increased by a fifth since 2017, while Germany declined, with 80% of companies with a target, up from 83% in 2017. Disclaimer: Fusion Media would like to remind you you that the data on this website is not necessarily real-time or accurate. All CFDs (Stocks, Indices, Futures) and Forex prices are not provided by exchanges but rather by market makers, and therefore prices may not be accurate and may differ from the actual market price meaning prices are indicative and not suitable for trading purposes . Therefore, Fusion Media does not bear any responsibility for any trading losses that you may incur as a result of using this data. Fusion Media or anyone associated with Fusion Media accepts no liability for any loss or damage resulting from reliance on any information, including data, quotes, charts and buy/sell signals on this website. Be fully informed about the risks and costs associated with trading the financial markets, it is one of the riskiest forms of investment possible.
