Thank you to the Economist for interviewing me for this piece. It is spot on. Speaking of ESG investing, the article notes “it has a negligible impact on carbon emissions, especially by the highest polluters. Its attempt to address social issues such as workplace diversity is hard to measure. As for governance, the ESG industry does a lousy job of holding itself to account, let alone the companies it is supposed to be stewarding. It makes outsized claims to investors. It just unmanageable demands on companies.” Not a great report card.

All that said, diligence on non financial factors is a must for any sane 21C investor. To abet, reporting should be standardized and audited. Even so, it is unreasonable to expect that ESG investing will do much to advance planetary welfare.

The environmental, social and governance (ESG) approach to investment is broken. It needs to be streamlined and stripped of sanctimoniousness, argues Henry Tricks

Read full article:
https://www.economist.com/special-report/2022/07/21/a-broken-system-needs-urgent-repairs