If there’s one thing we’ve learned from the pandemic, it’s that the world was ill-prepared. It’s not surprising that governments and asset managers are now throwing renewed efforts at tackling another major global threat – climate change.
Over the past decade, climate change has crept up the agenda of just about all investment houses. It’s barely possible to find an asset manager that doesn’t dedicate pages to its environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies, and as ESG has become more fashionable, so has scepticism about so-called greenwashing.
One new programme that may help assuage critics is the Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative, a club of 73 asset managers committed to supporting net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 or sooner, in line with global efforts to limit global warming to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels. Concrete commitments make it easier to hold asset managers to account.