Responsible investment review 2016
The Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA) released the 2016 Global Sustainable Investment Review in late March this year. We are honored to have contributed to the report and provided our insights on Asia's responsible investment (RI) environment.
Globally, there are now USD 22.89trillion of assets being professionally managed under RI strategies, an increase of 25% since 2014. In Asia (excluding Japan), RI assets totaled USD 34.2billion - excluding Sharia-compliant fund - an increase of 16%.
China - fastest growing market in the region
RI assets have definitely picked in 2015. The assets have grown 157% since 2013 from USD 450million to USD2.98billion. Majority of these assets are clean energy or climate change-related. A total of 31 private equity or venture capital investments were made in 2015. The disclosed investment sum reached USD 657million. And 20 of these investments were made in the environmental protection sub-sector. This may be attributed to China's interests in green finance to make the country more sustainable.
China is the first country to issue official rules on issuing 'green bonds' in 2015. A green finance committee is also set up by the People's Bank of China which comprises an elite group from the country's financial community. These initiatives not only contributed to the growth of RI assets in China but also have a positive impact on quality and transparent environmental data in order to be assured their investments actually benefit the environment rather than damage it further.
