GLG Partners will work with Mercer's investment consulting business to determine whether environmental investing has become the norm.

Issues surrounding climate change and other major environmental issues will be examined, and their effect, if any, on the approach and focus for mainstream investment.

"We believe that environmental liabilities are already changing the economics of some industries and will affect most industries' returns over the next ten years," commented Pierre Lagrange, co-founder and senior managing director of GLG. "Our view, which is supported by the McKinsey/Vattenfall report and work of the Carbon Mitigation Initiative at Princeton University, is that many of the necessary improvements can be realised with existing commercially available technologies, which raises the important question of how best to focus beyond the early VC, clean tech and other typical 'SRI' investments, to integrate environmental factors into profitable mainstream investing."

Mercer's Emma Hunt, the principal leading the project on the financial consultant's behalf, added that man areas in the investment sector are incorporating environmental issues into their research, analysis and investment decisions. "This is evident in the plethora of new products on the market and the increasingly widespread claim that environmental factors are being incorporated into investment processes. But is this really entering the mainstream? By undertaking an in-depth look of the actual penetration of environmental issues in the investment sector, we believe that we will be able to provide some valuable insights for both asset owners and asset managers on the current state of play."

The study will focus on Western Europe and North America, and the results will be available in autumn 2009.

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