Increase of ESG Investing in Asia

March 21st, 2018 by admin Leave a reply »

According to the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA), the number of assets managed under responsible investment strategies is still low (0.8 percent in Japan of total assets under professional management).  This figure is substantially lower than Europe which stands at 53 percent.  It has been pointed out that this is in part due to the incorporation of ESG factors into investment decisions.”

ESG investing today is more useful and attractive than ever before in Asia. Mainly, this can be attributed to the region’s pressing environmental concerns. And that has led to pension funds in the area consolidating ESG principles in their own investment process too.  For example, the largest pension fund in the world (boasting US$1.3 trillion under management), the Government Pension Investment Fund (GPIF) in Japan as well as the National Pension Service (NPS) in South Korea which have both made substantial allocations to ESG strategies.

In addition, the GPIF recently announced its decision to put US$8.9 billion into three ESG indices, boosting its ESG investment allocation to 10 per cent of its equity holdings. The NPS has registered for the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).

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