Bron
Newsweek
Newsweek published today the ESG study report ‘Going mainstream: The Future of ESG investing’. The report was researched and written by sustainable investment experts Harry Hummels and Rob Bauer from the University of Maastricht’s Department of Finance. It is based on an online survey of 281 asset owners and managers across the world, conducted in March and April 2018, as well as a dozen in-depth interviews with leading investors and practitioners in the field of sustainable and responsible investing.
Over the past decade, a quiet revolution has been taking place in the world of investment; now, Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) investing is going mainstream. At the end of 2016 around a quarter of all professionally managed assets were under ESG investment strategies and our research suggests that figure is only going to grow.
Though responsible investing has been gathering momentum since the financial crisis in 2008, two landmark accords marked a turning point for the movement: the signing by world leaders of the UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in September 2015, followed by the Paris Climate Agreement later that year. These ambitious charters that aim to tackle humanity’s most pressing concerns – among them climate change, acute hunger and poverty — require investments of upwards of USD 7 trn per year (or twice the US Federal Budget) – mostly in developing countries.
Increasingly, and encouragingly, private finance is stepping up. In the period following the adoption of these agreements the volume of assets covered by the Principles of Responsible Investment (PRI) expanded by 40%. Institutional investors – among them the world’s leading sovereign wealth funds, pension funds and insurance companies – are boosting their ESG focused investments. Philanthropic foundations are now linking their investments to the SDGs, and in the US, while the current administration has pulled out of the Paris Agreement, close to 2,000 investors and companies have said ‘We’re still in’.
Download the report (after request)
