Financing 1.5°C: What’s Driving ESG-Related Mergers?

This briefing by RMI's Center for Climate-Aligned Finance analyzes the increasing trend of mergers and acquisitions (M&A) within the financial sector, where large firms are acquiring smaller companies to gain expertise in climate risk and environmental, social, and governance (ESG) domains.

• Large financial institutions are increasingly using M&A to acquire climate risk expertise and analytical capabilities, driven by a lack of high-quality data on corporate resilience and the difficulty of integrating forward-looking climate scenarios into risk models.
• Recent high-profile acquisitions illustrate this trend, including Goldman Sachs' $1.9 billion purchase of NN Investment Partners and Moody's $2 billion acquisition of the climate risk analysis firm RMS.
• RMI anticipates a shift in M&A activity toward 'climate alignment'—the process of aligning portfolios with 1.5°C targets—as financial firms seek the technology and data necessary to support net-zero commitments.
• There is a tension between proprietary data used for competitive advantage and the need for a standardized, public baseline of corporate climate data (such as emissions and capital expenditure plans) to facilitate the energy transition.
• Regulatory bodies are moving toward mandatory climate-related disclosures to address data gaps, with the TCFD framework already mandatory in New Zealand and proposed rules from the US SEC and the European Commission.

APA

RMI (2021). Financing 1.5°C: What’s Driving ESG-Related Mergers? https://rmi.org/resources/financing-1-5c-whats-driving-the-wave-of-esg-related-mergers/

Chicago

RMI. Financing 1.5°C: What’s Driving ESG-Related Mergers? 2021. https://rmi.org/resources/financing-1-5c-whats-driving-the-wave-of-esg-related-mergers/.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |author=RMI |title=Financing 1.5°C: What’s Driving ESG-Related Mergers? |date=30 August 2021 |url=https://rmi.org/resources/financing-1-5c-whats-driving-the-wave-of-esg-related-mergers/ |access-date=17 August 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{rmi2021financing, author = {{RMI}}, title = {{Financing 1.5°C: What’s Driving ESG-Related Mergers?}}, institution = {RMI}, year = {2021}, month = aug, url = {https://rmi.org/resources/financing-1-5c-whats-driving-the-wave-of-esg-related-mergers/}, urldate = {2026-08-17}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }