Capital Economy, Business and Finance
In the closing months of 2023, US investors rushed to quit ‘environmental, social and governance’ ESG funds, with a net outflow of $5.1 billion. It looked like US conservatives had won the war on ‘woke capitalism’. A branch of finance that had promised to save the planet was struggling to save itself. Then something changed. Consider: BlackRock, the world’s biggest asset manager, grew ESG-related assets under management (AUM) by more than 50 per cent between 2022 and the end of 2023. Ninety per cent of companies recently surveyed by KPMG said they planned to dedicate more resources to ESG, not less. European sustainable funds attracted $3.3 billion in new money in the last quarter of 2023, according to Morningstar, and yesterday Bill Winters, CEO of Standard Chartered, said net-zero-focused investment was “the right thing for your business”. In the US, Man Group, the world’s largest publicly traded hedge fund, has defended screening for ESG risks because “it improves our investment process”.