香港地球之友綠色金融顧問Michele Leung / Michele Leung, Green Finance Advisor of Friends of the Earth (HK)

近年,環境、社會及管治或綠色投資成為主流議題,雖然業界對這個新興投資趨勢意見不一,但環境、社會及管治或綠色投資顯然是百利而無一害。
如果你認為環境、社會及管治或綠色投資注定沒有回報,現在該是時候改變一下觀念了!
愈來愈多學術研究及業界研究都在討論綠色投資議題。根據史丹福大學研究指出,近年投資者逐漸加強重視氣候金融,又偏向尋找「高回報及對環境有較高正面影響」的投資機遇。「經過分析由2005年1月至2015年12月期間高達74,486個美國企業個案,我們發現以上的投資機會真的存在。¹」此外,由牛津大學進行的大規模研究所得,在90%個案當中,生態效益高及對環境負責的公司擁有的資本成本(包括股權和債務)都較低,而以上企業皆顯示出優異的股票市場表現²。另一業界報告亦總結,披露更多環境、社會及管治事宜的公司絕少落後大市,且大多跑嬴大市³。
值得留意的是,環境、社會及管治或綠色投資應被拆解成不同的元素,例如重要數據點、環境、社會及管治評級、投資方法等。如沒有細心研究每一種基礎元素便判斷環境、社會及管治或綠色金融有否提供alpha值(以證明跑嬴大市),那未免將它看得太簡單了!
我想這篇文章的總結是,環境、社會與管治並不意味著犧牲回報,由於這類投資波動性較低,風險管理會較容易。全球投資者現正站在解決氣候變化的最前線,也許現在正是你接受環境、社會及管治或綠色投資的時候了!
ESG or green investing has undeniably become mainstream in recent years. Despite the continuous debates in the market, it is getting clear that ESG or green investing does no harm.
If you think investing in ESG or green considerations will sacrifice your investment returns, it is the time to think twice.
More academic studies and industry research papers have been addressing to this related topic. According to Stanford University, investors increasingly prioritize climate finance and look for investment opportunities that offer “high returns with high environmental impact.” “After analyzing 74,486 observations of U.S. firms from January 2005 to December 2015, we find that such investment opportunities do exist”. Meta-study by Oxford University also found that in 90% of cases they analyzed environmentally efficient companies have lower costs of capital (both equity and debt) and that eco-efficient and environmentally responsible companies show superior stock market performance. Another industry report also concluded that “increasing exposure to ESG rarely underperforms the market, and often outperforms the market”
It is important to note ESG or green investing would be decomposed into different elements, from underlying data points, ESG rating to investment construction methodology. It would be overly simplistic for one to conclude ESG or green does or does not provide alpha (outperformance) without carefully study each fundamental element.
I guess the baseline here is, ESG doesn’t mean sacrificing returns while it does help you to manage risk as they tend to translate into lower volatility. As global investors are now getting at the forefront of climate change, perhaps it is also the time for you to embrace ESG or green investing.
Source:
1 https://gpc.stanford.edu/publications/being-green-rewarded-market-empirical-investigation-decarbonization-risk-and-stock
2 http://www.smithschool.ox.ac.uk/publications/reports/SSEE_Arabesque_Paper_16Sept14.pdf
3 https://jii.iijournals.com/content/early/2018/08/07/jii.2018.1.061
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