Last month, the federally-owned Tennessee Valley Authority voted to close two aging coal-fired power plants. No tweet from U.S. President Donald Trump could save them.

Despite the White House’s efforts to prop up the coal industry, the U.S. was on track to shut down more coal plants in 2018 than in any other year. “The thing that has changed fundamentally the whole picture is that renewables have gotten so cheap,” says Jim Barry, global head of BlackRock's infrastructure investment group. BlackRock is the world's largest asset manager with US$6.29 trillion in assets under management.

As awareness dawns of the increasing risks of climate change, business and government have developed new tools and mechanisms to promote pro-social and environmentally friendly investment. But one U.K. analyst is pointing out that such high standards could backfire by restricting capital to many developing nations that need it most.

Charles Robertson is the London-based global chief economist at Renaissance Capital, an investment bank specializing in emerging markets. As the lead author of The Fastest Billion: The Story Behind Africa’s Economic Revolution (2012), Robertson has a genuine interest in helping developing countries succeed – and thinks they deserve a break from well-meaning financial engineering.

A recent Goldman Sachs report says big oil companies are key to the global climate debate, as their products account for 10 per cent of the carbon emissions of the global energy sector. The rest of the report asks: Can Big Oil change its ways?

Goldman’s answer is yes. It sets out a path through which Big Oil can become Big Energy by the year 2030 by embracing greener energy sources and higher-value petroleum products. These initiatives can help the oil industry reduce its carbon-emission intensity by 23 per cent, a target that matches sustainable development goals while still providing universal access to energy, according to the International Energy Agency.

How is this ranking calculated?

The ranking starts with identification of all publicly listed companies who had at least US$1B in revenues in the last fiscal year. They are screened for adequate performance disclosure, good financial health, and non-engagement in defined businesses and practices (e.g. weapons and tobacco manufacturing). The resulting shortlisted companies are scored on a mix and weighting of up to 21 performance metrics, tailored to their sector/peer group. The final G100 represents the top performers from each sector/peer group, with the number from each sector based on the relative size of its global market capitalization. See our 2019 Global 100 Methodology for more details.