Stockholm (NordSIP) – Last week, the Impact Taskforce, established under the UK’s 2021 presidency of the G7, officially announced the group’s members. It is an impressive list of global leaders from the world of business, public policy, and the social sector who will advise the G7 on mobilising private capital for the public good. One of the appointed investment professionals is Marcus Svedberg, Investment Strategist at AP4. He will be joining the taskforce’s Working Group B, ‘Instruments and Policies to Scale Impact Investment’. NordSIP reached out to Svedberg to hear more about the appointment and his involvement in the global initiative.
Commenting on the reasons for joining the Impact Taskforce and the specific workgroup, Svedberg says that he believes it is an important and timely topic. “The combination of high political level with relevant financial industry expertise is a promising start. It is also a focused exercise over a couple of months rather than a more slow-moving permanent set-up,” he adds. The group’s final report is expected to be delivered to G7 governments already in December 2021.
The task ahead is ambitious. The aim is to design principles and recommendations for financing vehicles that can mobilise private capital at scale to achieve impact in areas such as jobs creation, education, and health in the context of the global transition to net-zero carbon economies. Svedberg is optimistic, however, about the outcome of the initiative. “I hope it will result in a few clear recommendations that are progressive enough to make a real difference and realistic enough to be implemented in the near future,” he says.
Reflecting on what Nordic institutional investors can bring to the table, Svedberg acknowledges that the Nordics are recognised for being at the forefront in sustainable finance and have concrete experiences to share. “There should be no room for complacency, however,” he warns. “One of the obvious recommendations is that everyone needs to do more of everything in terms of sustainable investments.”
Expectations run high about the upcoming COP26 in Glasgow this autumn. Svedberg, too, is looking forward to it, yet his take is slightly different. “COP26 will obviously be an important event, but I am personally less excited about that and other meetings and more interested in the actual decisions – political as well as investment – leading up to and following these events”, he says. “I am encouraged by so many countries, regulators, companies, and investors increasing their ambitions. It is still much too little, but it is at least accelerating,” concludes Svedberg.
