ESG Survey: Why investing in wind farms is no longer enough

Pension funds and institutional investors are demanding better ESG reporting and compliance from infrastructure funds as asset performance data grows. An Inframation survey on the topic last month finds out how they are coping. Colin Leopold reports

When Malena Ernman sang for Sweden at the 2009 Eurovision song contest in Moscow, global economic output was facing its first decline since the second world war and governments around the world were reeling from the financial crisis. At the UN Climate Summit in Copenhagen a few months later, US president at the time Barack Obama left before the final vote and Lumumba Di-Aping, chief negotiator for the G77 group of 130 developing countries, said the resulting climate deal had "the lowest level of ambition you can imagine. It's nothing short of climate change scepticism in action.”

Ten years later, Ernman’s 16-year old daughter Greta Thunberg has become one of the most recognisable faces of climate change protest and environmental, social and governance (ESG) concerns have been pushed to the top of the political agenda.

Investors are taking note. In a survey of Inframation subscribers in April nine out of ten of the over 100 responding agreed that in the past 12 months ESG has become a more important part of their investment decision-making.

Feature Published: 15 April

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