During time’s recent crisis, sustainable investing has made its place in the market after tried and trusted safe havens, such as gold or long-dated secured bonds. Research by JointValues found that the companies in India which performed well during the COVID-19 crisis have policies and systems addressing the ESG perspectives.
Trends indicate that ESG funds shall receive batten from crises time investment destinations as soon as India starts coming out of the COVID-19. Sustainable companies shall emerge stronger from the pandemic. By picking the growth and providing returns up to 17% in Q1 2020, ESG-focused funds in India corroborate that backing companies with substantial environmental, social and governance (ESG) policies and sustainability outlook is the right decision to make.
Many companies in Asia-Pacific have already started disclosing their ESG performance and impacts using different standards and frameworks, including TCFD. Decision-making for investment also needs next-level information on how climate change and ESG aspects are influencing the market and business ecosystem, including regulations in Asia-Pacific that would impact a company’s financials in the short, medium and long term.
JointValues Framework for Evaluation of ESG and Climate Change
JointValues framework for evaluating ESG and Climate Change-related disclosures by the companies is aligned with TCFD and calibrated for Asia-Pacific’s business ecosystem and regulations. JointValues evaluates index companies for their ESG and climate change disclosures and provides information in the public domain and classified reports to investors for empowering better investment decisions.
Benefits for Corporates
Better access to data will help companies explore underlying system-wide exposures and opportunities and can now more effectively measure and evaluate their risks and opportunities within physical boundaries and value chain. Moreover, companies can now help their investors and other stakeholders assess to what extent they are considering and managing climate-related risks and ESG factors and hence have an increased chance to benchmark and stand out from their peers.
Benefits for Investors
Investors can gain deeper insights into the risk and opportunities facing businesses they are investing in and can prioritize their engagement strategies accordingly. Secondly, they can improve the investment outcome regarding return enhancement or risk reduction. On the whole, they will easily be able to identify leaders and laggards regarding preparedness for transition to a low carbon economy. Lenders, insurers and underwriters will be better able to evaluate their risks and exposures over the short, medium, and long term.
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