News in the spotlight: EIF backs EUR 200 mn biogas push with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
The European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB Group, has committed EUR 200 million to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ (CIP) Advanced Bioenergy Fund II (ABF II).
Products and Services
The Justice Company and HANetf launch human rights-screened high dividend ETF
The Justice Company has launched the JURY Global High Dividend UCITS ETF, its debut product in the European ETF market, via HANetf’s white-label UCITS platform. The ETF targets high-dividend global equities while applying strict human rights exclusions based on international law. The fund screens out companies materially involved in genocide, war crimes, crimes against humanity, apartheid, and serious occupation-related human rights abuses. The exclusion framework is built on international legal standards—Geneva Conventions, UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights, and OECD guidelines—developed by independent research firm Ethical Screening. This rules-based approach distinguishes JURY from typical ESG funds that may still hold companies involved in controversial activities. JURY focuses on large- and mid-cap stocks in developed markets, aiming to deliver a higher dividend yield than the broader market while maintaining diversification, transparency, and institutional-grade liquidity. The ETF is classified as Article 8 under SFDR and trades on the London Stock Exchange, Xetra, and Borsa Italiana.
EIF backs EUR 200 mn biogas push with Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners
The European Investment Fund (EIF), part of the EIB Group, has committed EUR 200 million to Copenhagen Infrastructure Partners’ (CIP) Advanced Bioenergy Fund II (ABF II). The investment is designed to scale biomethane and advanced bioenergy production across Europe, supporting the energy transition and strengthening energy security. The EIF commitment is the first major capital injection into ABF II and will be deployed together with CIP’s existing portfolio of lifetime investment partners, including EU national promotional banks and financial institutions. The fund targets advances in biomethane and advanced bioenergy projects that meet strict sustainability criteria. CIP’s ABF II builds on the success of ABF I, which already holds significant biomethane assets including Europe’s largest operational biogas plant at Tønder in Denmark—converting 930,000 tonnes of organic waste annually and producing 41 million normal cubic metres of renewable natural gas. The fund’s strategy focuses on industrial-scale biogas and bioenergy assets that can displace fossil gas and reduce CO2 emissions at scale.
Lloyds partners with National Wealth Fund to boost UK universities
Lloyds Banking Group and the National Wealth Fund (NWF) have launched a GBP 500mn financing initiative to fund energy-efficiency and heat decarbonisation upgrades across UK university estates. Under the agreement, Lloyds will provide up to GBP 500mn in lending, de-risked by up to GBP 350mn in financial guarantees from the NWF. The UK higher education sector faces an estimated GBP 8.8bn bill to decarbonise its complex, hard-to-abate building stock. The NWF’s guarantee enables Lloyds to offer the flexible, longer-tenor financing required to make large-scale retrofit projects viable for these institutions, which often struggle to fund significant upfront capital expenditures. This capital injection will help modernise up to 300 campus buildings, structurally reducing emissions and lowering long-term operating costs. Beyond the direct infrastructure improvements, the initiative is projected to stimulate local supply chains and support up to 4,000 jobs, from regional contractors to specialist engineers.
Regulations, Law and Frameworks
GRI and IFRS Foundation deepen collaboration on sustainability reporting alignment
The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) and the IFRS Foundation have issued a joint statement reaffirming their commitment to enabling efficient sustainability reporting using both GRI Standards and ISSB Standards together. Released on 26 May 2026, the statement clarifies how the two sets of standards can be used in tandem to meet the information needs of both investors and other stakeholders. The document distinguishes between common disclosures—where the same information is relevant to both standards despite serving different purposes—and complementary disclosures, which address related topics from different mandates. The most developed example is greenhouse gas emissions: organizations using both standards can apply IFRS S2 disclosures on Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 emissions to meet corresponding GRI 102 climate change requirements, provided emissions are measured using the GHG Protocol and the GRI content index points to the disclosure location.
TISFD unveils draft framework to improve reporting on human rights and social impacts
The Taskforce on Inequality and Social-related Financial Disclosures (TISFD) has released the first draft of its framework to help businesses and financial institutions identify, assess, and report on people-related impacts, dependencies, risks, and opportunities. This beta version marks a key milestone in improving visibility of inequality and social issues that increasingly shape business performance and financial stability. The draft framework responds to growing recognition that inequality is material to investment outcomes and economic stability. It supports convergence with ISSB, GRI, and ESRS standards, aiming to harmonise global disclosure practices and reduce fragmentation. Structurally, it aligns with TCFD and TNFD frameworks to enable integrated reporting across people, climate, and nature. The framework includes conceptual foundations, proposed general requirements, draft disclosure recommendations, and areas for future development. Metrics and implementation guidance will be added in future editions. The final version is due in 2027.
ESG Data and Analytics
IFS introduces new emissions Aaccounting tool for industrial enterprises
IFS has launched IFS Zero, an agentic Emissions Operating System for asset-intensive industries. The platform provides a single, unified calculation system to measure, disclose, and optimize Scope 1, Scope 2, and Scope 3 carbon emissions. IFS Zero is purpose-built for carbon emissions management based on extensive consultation with IFS customers in asset-intensive sectors. It works alongside IFS’s Sustainability Management module, which serves as the central hub for all sustainability data—emissions, social impact, diversity metrics and more. While Sustainability Management provides the enterprise-wide reporting framework, IFS Zero focuses specifically on carbon, delivering the granular, real-time emissions intelligence industrial firms need to move from reporting to action. The platform addresses chronic problems in emissions management: fragmented data, manual reconciliation, and time-intensive reporting. IFS Zero deploys agentic AI across the entire data lifecycle—mapping sources, validating data, flagging anomalies, and producing audit-ready outputs.