While probably not the new kid on the block, ESGs are the hottest, geared to cool down our planet
A comprehensive approach of three pillars, Environment, Social and Governance, which companies are expected to report, particularly on financial and material issues, can impact a company’s financial performance. Double materiality is being recognised as an increasingly important concept, i.e., the social material issues alongside financial material issues are also treated as material. The goal, in essence, is to capture all non-financial risks and opportunities of business activities and relate them practically to the fate of planet earth.
It is based on a simple philosophy. For any change to happen, we need to put our money where our mouth is; or literally, where our values are. When the stakes are high and the targets bold, simply proclaiming lovely goals won’t cut it. It takes concerted efforts, investments, and monitoring for alignment. Enter ESGs and sustainable finance.
Founding Managing Partner, W11 Ventures Ltd.
Interestingly, a group of investment and sustainable investing groups with more than 90 asset managers called on the European Commission in a joint statement issued in July 2023 to reconsider its recent proposed changes to the European Sustainability Reporting Standards (ESRS), which would ease several aspects of the EU’s upcoming CSRD, as the changes proposed by the EC would impact investors’ ability to obtain sustainability-related information required for investment decisions, on top of reducing their ability to meet their own reporting requirements, including those under the EU’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), with similar concerns being raised from Banking Association AFME.
ESG elements are increasingly incorporated into investment decisions and are used to screen investments based on corporate policies and encourage companies to act responsibly, making ESG reporting even more important for securing debt and equity capital. The UK is making it clear that ESG is part of fiduciary duty, and climate reporting must be embedded in investment.
Kofteros, Founding Partner, W11 Ventures Ltd.
SLB’s financing, where the financing provides flexibility to use the proceeds for general corporate purposes. Take your pick. Aeroporti di Roma completed a new ten-year €400 million sustainability-linked bond (SLB) with the cost of debt on the bond tied to a series of the airport operations group’s climate related goals. Demand on the offering was strong – nearly five times oversubscribed generating significant international interest, especially from ESG investors, and overwhelmingly from foreign investors. Tokyo-based Mizuho announced a new goal to facilitate $700 billion in sustainable finance to 2030 of which half in environment and climate-change-related finance.
Singapore’s Sustainability Reporting Advisory Committee (SRAC) launched by the regulators proposed that all public and private companies be required to provide climate-related disclosures beginning 2025, aligned with IFRS’s newly published disclosure standards. The proposal for mandatory climate reporting by all listed issuers, including those incorporated overseas and non-listed companies, aims to maintain Singapore’s position as a global business hub and contribute to the Singapore Green Plan 2030.
According to the SRAC Chairperson Esther Ann, climate strategy and reporting can help companies to mitigate and adapt to risks in the transition to a low carbon economy, as what is measured gets managed and climate reporting will help businesses to improve performance and create stronger competitive advantage by capturing growth opportunities.
Among the world’s largest institutional investors practicing sustainable green investing are the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) in Japan, the Norwegian Government Pension Fund Global and the Dutch Pension Fund ABP, funds that are recognizing the long-term benefits of sustainable investing of improved shareholder value, reduced volatility, and better risk-adjusted returns. Since Q1 of 2022, investments in funds partly devoted to the environment increased by 3 times to $2 trillion, with such funds attracting $3 billion in investments a day.
Over the past two years, green sustainable investments have grown by more than 15 per cent in value, accounting for one third of US assets under management. New equity funds raised by companies in the climate-tech sector totalled $119 billion in 2022 with experts though arguing that green investments must triple if we are to achieve the net-zero emissions goal of 2050. Bloomberg Intelligence has tracked ESG asset growth from $22.8 trillion in 2016 to $35 trillion in 2020 and projected to $50 trillion by 2025, add on that another $560 billion spent on corporate R&D in 2020.
While we do not know where the long game will find these investments and some will be winners while other losers like with any risk investments, research from McKinsey Global Institute and FCLT Global showed that there is significant gain from focusing on long-term value and green investments of 47 per cent higher revenue growth and faster growing market caps.
The high levels of investments required to achieve net-zero emissions present an opportunity for investors to build on innovation and become leaders, yielding potentially big returns. By having a clear ESG innovation driven framework in place, companies can maximise on multiples of returns, for the long-term, and not only as frequently said, a conservative, financially stamped, ROI.
Are we there? Is the correct framework and mindset in place to maximise on this great opportunity? It is worth noting that is not very often that we experience a cohesion, the whole and not the sum of the parts; consumers, employees, corporate leaders, governing and regulatory bodies, and of course investors, being in line under a single one-word headline, ESG. Humbly, we are not there yet; we are not maximising on the outcome of this impeccable opportunity to change things in volume and on a global scale.
What is missing? We strongly believe is the fusion of ESGs with the R&D and innovation strategies of each organisation. A clear ESG innovation driven framework and understanding.
A four-helix process – Evaluation Exploration, Collaboration, and Implementation – for an efficient ESG innovation driven strategy that will significantly capitalise on the opportunity, leverage on emerging innovations and technologies, with multiples of benefits to the environment and relevant stakeholders. The Evaluation process checks and balances on whether the project meets the requirements for community/social, profit/financial, and environmental benefits. The exploration process consists in finding innovators and entrepreneurs, use cases and emerging technologies that can be included in the project to meet pre-established milestones. The Collaboration process will further expand the reach and will establish a co-creation environment and culture between innovators/entrepreneurs and employees. Finally, the Implementation process with everyone involved having a common understanding, a sense of ownership and being aligned with time sensitive objectives and deliverables.
As Microsoft President Brad Smith put it, this is where the world is going, where the regulators are going and where the customers and investors are going. In essence, where everyone, Cypriot companies included, should be going. And as Cypriot banks will be evaluating customers based on ESG’s from 2024 with this evaluation affecting access to finance and interest rates, the route is turning into a one-way highway that can be supercharged with innovation.
