Development Economics & Chinese Consumerism
Danish pension companies are investing up to five times more in renewable sources than in 2014, meaning they now invest 3.4% of total pension assets or DKK 100 billion in renewable energy such as wind turbines, solar cells and biofuels. Green energy is a good alternative to bonds and shares at a time of low interest rates, according to PensionDanmark director Torben Möger Pedersen.
Norwegian development finance institution Norfund established a $10 million fund to support SMEs in Somalia together with IFU, the Danish investment fund for developing countries, the Arsenault Family Foundation and the One Earth Future Foundation. The Nordic Horn of Africa Opportunities Fund offers financing to sustainable businesses.
On the other side of the Atlantic, ESG is getting traction with the largest US pension fund, CalPERS committing another US$1 billion to an ESG strategy designed by AXA Investment Managers‘ quantitative specialist Rosenberg Equities.
Colin Croft, a fund manager on Jupiter AM’s Emerging Markets team, takes a look at China’s shift to a more consumer-driven economy that places increasing emphasis on environmental concerns and potential investment opportunities.
Heard on E-Street
The current pace of global climate change remains double that of the international targets set in the Paris Climate Agreement due to lack and speed of global action to limit its impact, according to the Schroders Climate Progress Dashboard, which celebrated its one-year anniversary this week (CleanTechnica). Meanwhile, the International Energy Agency published its annual World Energy Investment report showing that while $750 billion was spent on the electricity sector as against only $715 on oil and gas supply, investment in renewables and energy actually fell by 3% (CleanTechnica). BNP Paribas joined the Responsible Investment Association of Australasia (RIAA), its responsible investment process and disclosure requirements being verified by the organisation (Money Management). Barclays’ latest Impact Investing Report surveying 2,000 investors suggested millennials and younger generations continue to drive the trend of responsible investing, but also that the industry must engage older investors if ESG is to gain maximum scale (Morningstar).
Question of the Week
Who won this year’s CFA Society Sweden ESG Award for 2017?
Famous Last Words
“It’s wrong to say that because climate has changed in the past, either we aren’t causing climate change, or it is no big deal and we will survive. Quite the contrary. The evidence of past change shows that climate can change pretty wildly, given even a little push. And we are pushing it pretty hard. Sure, humanity survived some past climate change, but at least during the “Holocene” time when agriculture developed and civilizations flourished, climate has been relatively stable. And the smallish changes that occurred had a pretty major impact of biblical proportion… famines, floods, mass migration, heat waves, killing frosts. So maybe we survived. But it wasn’t fun. And some civilizations collapsed. I don’t think we want that.” – Alan C. Mix, professor of earth, ocean and atmospheric sciences at Oregon State University and co-author of a new study suggesting the future effects of climate change could be twice as bad as current models project under a business-as-usual scenario (Nexus Media/EcoWatch).
Where Science has Biblical Proportions… Happy weekend,
Your NordSIP team
Image © NosorogUA – Shutterstock
