At the time of exponential growth of ESG funds, it is more important than ever for investors to be able to distinguish genuine responsible investment from greenwashing (and greenwishing). Europe’s new rules on sustainable finance (such as Taxonomy and SFDR) are meant to help investors to do exactly that. Yet many fear that the ambiguity of wording in some articles and the complexity related to implementation have been making the situation worse before it can get any better. Firms are struggling to access the ESG credentials of relevant portfolio companies, especially at the level of granularity needed to meet EU requirements.
Assessing the ESG risks that range from products and infrastructure to supply chains can often be problematic when access to the breadth and depth of data needed about the underlying assets is poor; opinions of data and rating providers differ; and we are dealing with many jurisdictions.
• What are data and information challenges to manage ESG risks in portfolios and to identify opportunities? And what are the approaches to navigate through them?
• Does the use of derivatives make a Financial Institution look greener? And what methodologies work for different asset classes?
• We see acquisitions and the consolidation of data and analytics providers – does it change their ESG value proposition? and the market’s access to data?
• Distributors – are they friends or foes?
• How do you ensure that ESG data becomes consistent, transparent, and decision-useful knowledge throughout the organisation?
• What are the recommendations from IOSCO and regulators?
These and many other questions we will discuss with our excellent panellists:
Kyra Brown – Regulatory Development Manager – Aviva Investors
Cecilia Siegbahn – Senior ESG Regulatory Expert - Nordea Asset Management
Michael Maldener – CEO - Sustaide
Achim Stefan Karle - Vice President, Global Equity and Index Sales - Eurex
Moderated by Dana Hanby – Managing Director – ESG Nexus