Companies and institutional investors are being asked to contribute to the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) through their business activities, asset allocation and investment decisions. The SDG investment case tries to answer the question: Why are the SDGs relevant to institutional investors?
Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investing and Bloomberg L.P. report highlights how sustainable investing has transformed from a given fiduciary duty into a strategic business imperative in the financial markets. Asset managers in the U.S. perceive this shifting investment landscape as a new opportunity to create increasingly competitive returns and more productive portfolios in the coming years.
Based on research conducted on the performance of nearly 11,000 mutual funds from 2004 to 2018, Morgan Stanley Institute for Sustainable Investment finds no statistically significant difference in returns between sustainable funds and traditional funds. However, sustainable funds demonstrated 20% lower downside risk than traditional funds.
A research study conducted by the Barclays Research team seeking to assess the link between environmental, social and governance (ESG) ratings and credit portfolio performance. In addition, the report provides a general overview over sustainable investing and the top trends driving the rapid rise of its popularity.
The Inevitable Policy Response (IPR) is a project to prepare investors for the investment risks associated with the most likely responses to climate change. The likely impacts of climate change and mechanisms in the Paris Agreement are likely to force substantial policy introduction in the near future with investment implications.
Analysis by FTSE Russell suggests that the transition to a sustainable green economy is a large investment opportunity, backed by global efforts to combat climate change and broader environmental challenges, that can deliver outperformance of the global equity market,
This article defines responsible investment, highlights the ways in which it is currently applied to managing assets, and outlines the key forces driving its growth. Additionally, it discusses common misconceptions about responsible investment.
GMO's founder and long-term investment strategist, Jeremy Grantham, offers a wide-ranging analysis of interconnected environmental crises, explores solutions and makes recommendations for investors. The paper covers climate change, population growth, soil erosion and toxicity. It concludes by making the case for environmental investment strategies and fossil fuel divestment.
This report is intended to help investors understand how climate change can influence their investment performance in both the short and long term. The research uses scenarios from the Cambridge Econometrics transition-risk climate model, to consider three scenarios; 2⁰C, 3⁰C and 4⁰C temperature increases, with evolved pathways and magnitude.
Integrating environmental, social and governance (ESG) criteria into existing portfolios involves considerations beyond benchmark tracking and diversification such as budgets for governance and risk as well as portfolio impacts of different types of ESG implementation. The report explores ESG portfolio integration as well as outlining trade-offs in portfolio management.
The research explores the moral, financial and economic justification for responsible investment, and the academic evidence underpinning future action. It concentrates on how ESG factors materially impact investment risk and returns, clarifying the agency of investors over non-financial value creation.
