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The green frontier: navigating the new SDR regulations

Webinar replay

With the FCA introducing a package of measures – Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR) – to help consumers navigate the market for sustainable investments, this webinar explores what these latest regulations mean for advisers and how they could affect investor behaviour. The expert panel also examine the current political landscape in both Europe and the US, the outcomes of COP28 and what this could all mean for markets and the performance of sustainable investments.

Webinar contents

00:00 Introduction
01:13 Background to the SDR
04:11 The SDR and Consumer Duty
09:03 SDR investment labels
14:48 Sustainability considerations when managing client portfolios 
19:40 Active and passive approaches
24:28 New investment solutions
30:02 Regulation and the business world
32:25 ESG fund sales 
37:28 COP 28 commitments and other policies
44:00 Key takeaways

Transcript

The speaker panel

Hosted by Fidelity’s Paul Richards, the webinar featured a highly-qualified panel of experts in this field. Paul was joined by Amy Clarke, Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer at Tribe Impact Capital, Lee Coates, Founder of ESG Accord, Julia Dreblow, Founder of SRI Services and Matthew Jennings, Investment Director – Sustainable Investing at Fidelity.

About the panel

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Paul Richards

Paul is our Head of Distribution and has worked at Fidelity since 2006. He is responsible for the development and implementation of sales strategy, as well as the day-to-day management of the field-based and telephony sales teams. 

Paul has over 34 years’ experience in financial services, beginning his career at a life insurance company, before moving to Skandia, where he held various sales roles, culminating in the role of Sales Development Manager for the London region. 

Paul holds the Advanced Financial Planning Certificate and is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute.

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Amy Clarke

Amy is Co-Founder and Chief Impact Officer at Tribe. She has over 25 years’ experience in sustainability, having trained as a climate and soil scientist, and studied environmental policy and law at postgraduate level.  

Amy sits on the board of B Lab UK & Big Issue Invest. She is also an Adviser to the Ocean Plastics Leadership Network and sits on the Development Council of the Future Fit Benchmark and the Steering Committee of the Global Ethical Finance Initiative. Amy is also a guest lecturer on Impact Investing elective for the Said Business School MBA.

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Lee Coates

Lee is a sustainable investing pioneer with more than three decades worth of experience in ethical investing.  

In 1989, he launched independent financial advisers Ethical Investors, which dealt exclusively in ethical and responsible investment advice. He retired from the firm in 2020, but during his time there he also launched independent ethical research company Ethical Screening (in 1998). In 2010, he launched Australia’s first animal-friendly Superannuation fund, Cruelty Free Super. The following year he was awarded an OBE for services to ethical business and finance.

Lee is also part of the FCA’s Disclosure and Labels Advisory Group (DLAG).

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Julia Dreblow

Julia has specialised in sustainable and responsible investment for nearly three decades. She has run her own business, SRI Services, since 2010 and was appointed vice chair of the FCA’s adviser sustainability working group (ASG) in January 2024.

Julia previously served on the FCA’s Disclosure and Labels Advisory Group (DLAG) – that helped shape the recently announced Sustainability Disclosure Requirements (SDR). She is also the technical author of the British Standards Institution’s Fund PAS (BSI PAS 7342) which is due to publish later this year and lead author of the PIMFA ESG Academy.

She has previously served three (non-consecutive) terms as a director at industry not-for-profit UKSIF.

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Matthew Jennings

Matthew Jennings is Investment Director for Sustainable Investing. His role focusses on the development of Fidelity’s sustainable investing capabilities and driving ESG integration within Fidelity’s investment process.  

Matthew has 15 years of investment experience and joined Fidelity in 2011. Over this time, he has covered a number of contrarian equity strategies, and helped to launch Fidelity’s sustainable fund range in 2019. He is a CFA Charterholder, and has completed the CFA Certificate in ESG Investing and Cambridge Institute for Sustainable Leadership course in Sustainable Finance.

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