What's Happening in Sustainable Finance: ESG Market Continues Rapid Growth, Climate Risks Top WEF List, and More

Posted on March 22, 2022

 

 

 

 

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Episode Summary

Hosts

  • Nicholas Gandolfo, Director, Corporate Solutions
  • Aditi Bhatia, Regional Sales Manager, Corporate Solutions

In this episode, hosts Nick and Aditi discuss notable trends and deals in sustainable finance – from rapid market growth, to increasing diversification of products, new taxonomies, sovereign green bonds and sustainability-linked bonds, impact accounting and reporting, and much more. Nick also tackles audience questions, offering some valuable insight on group frameworks and Sustainalytics’ approach to supporting transition finance.

Rapid Growth in Sustainable Finance

2021 saw incredible growth in sustainable finance and ESG assets under management (AUM) are projected to reach US$50 trillion by 2025 and make up one-third of global AUM. Sustainable bonds already made up 10% of global debt issued in 2021, with US$1 trillion issued for the first time and a 40% increase over 2020. And 2022 is showing no signs of slowing down, with a hot start to the year and good momentum looking forward.

World Economic Fund Risk Report 2022

Of the WEF’s top ten global risks by severity, five are environmental issues and the top three directly relate to climate change. View the report here. It’s no surprise that this theme is carried forward from the previous risk report, but it highlights the continued importance of funding for projects that address climate risk. 

World Economic Fund - Global Risks Report 2022 - Top 10 Risks by Severity

Download Our New eBook, Getting Started With ESG: What Every Company Needs to Know

Download our ebook, Getting Started With ESG: What Every Company Needs to Know

As more and more companies are thinking about incorporating ESG considerations into their strategies, Sustainalytics Corporate Solutions wants to ensure they start off on the right foot. Download our practical guide to starting a corporate ESG strategy and discover key issues that could affect your company, the benefits of action, and the risks of inaction.


Key Moments

01:48

Market news

02:17

Hot start to the year: looking for $1tn ESG investment in 2022

03:31

Big year for taxonomies? ASEAN, Korea, Indonesia, plus EU changes

04:05

WEF Risk Report: top risks climate-related

05:10

ESG risk ratings scrutiny on usefulness and robustness

05:45

Fashion industry decarbonization and scope 3 emissions

06:20

Impact accounting

07:15

Nuclear, gas, and the EU Taxonomy

07:52

John Holland Sustainability-Linked Bank Guarantee (Australia)

08:32

COVID recovery and Build Back Better

09:02

Climate Bonds Initiative report: Thailand infrastructure

09:25

World Bank report: sovereign SLB KPIs

09:51

IEA report: digitization as enabler for transition

10:20

Environmental Finance report: Green Bond Impact Reporting

11:25

Green bonds overview

16:15

Green loans overview

18:10

SLBs overview

24:20

Audience questions

29:15

SLLs overview

32:30

Labeled products overview

33:28

Transition finance overview

 

Links to Select Resources

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