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The COVID-19 crisis has presented an opportunity to reshape a future which is green, inclusive and sustainable. Through the recovery and the years that follow, PRI will be working with investors to help realise this more prosperous reality. This will include an emphasis on moving beyond risk and return to include real-world impact, a focus on social issues and more ambitious stewardship practices as well as strong action on climate. This session outlines how the PRI is calling on the global investor community to help in building back better.[vc_quotes layout=”accordion” 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title=”Speaker” el_class=””][vc_quotes layout=”accordion” 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title=”Moderator” el_class=””][vc_empty_space height=”10px”]
The world has finally woken up and realised the importance of sustainability. We have the opportunity to leverage the crisis to build back better.
‘The SDGs are the business plan and North Star for the world. We don’t need a new plan, we just need to execute on and invest in the existing plan.’
We are accelerating into the era of Responsible Investment 2.0 or 3.0, which means shifting the dialog from risk/return to risk/return/real world impact.
In the past, social issues have been treated as the poor cousin of ESG and this cannot continue to be the case. Many investors are still unclear on how best to fulfil their responsibilities on human rights. PRI’s aim is to raise awareness of human rights obligations, as has been done with climate over the past 5 years.
Legal frameworks need to evolve to help investors implement sustainability outcomes.
Further work is required around data to ensure we can better measure risk and impact.
We aim to usher in a new ambitious era of stewardship. We cannot engage on everything so let’s get on the same page and focus on the most pressing systemic issues facing the world. Asset owners and corporates can help by signing up to the net zero commitment.
PRI’s next evolution of reporting will focus more on outcomes, not just process.
PRI wants to be a big tent organisation that works with all parties, not just the leading parties. Nonetheless, PRI intends to raise its minimum standards for ratings and new signatories.
I’m not sure we will hit the targets across all 17 SDGs in the next decade but I’m confident we will make significant progress for people and planet.
One of the most important, upcoming challenges at CalSTRS is how the fund should evaluate Chinese investments from a human capital and environmental standpoint, says Chris Ailman, chief investment officer at the giant pension fund.
What policies for greening
the crisis response
and economic recovery?
Lessons learned from past
green stimulus measures
and implications for the
COVID-19 crisis
The Harvard endowment is about half way through its transition to external investment management and will work with its service providers to implement the university’s new directive, to position the portfolio in line with net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The COVID-19 crisis is likely to have dramatic consequences for progress on climate change. Imminent fiscal recovery packages could entrench or partly displace the current fossil-fuel-intensive economic system.
Asset allocation plays such a fundamental role to determining long-term returns that ignoring these sustainability issues – where the impacts affect economies, businesses and society over decades – just does not make sense.
How can investors be a catalyst for change and have an active voice in a sustainable recovery? This episode explores the role of investors and how they can collaborate for effective collective action. It includes the work of one of the leaders in sustainable investing and the biggest pension fund in Europe, APG. It invites investors to have an active voice in a sustainable recovery.
There is a lack of understanding in investment decision-making about how big the climate crisis is which could lead to investments and risks being mis-directed, according to Professor Cameron Hepburn, Professor of Environmental Economics at Oxford University.
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