(MENAFN- The Peninsula) Deepak John |
The Peninsula
ESG (Environmental, Social, and Corporate Governance) investing is an important component as it focuses on socially responsible investing and supports sustainable returns. Speaking during a webinar, experts said that ESG investing incentivises companies to adopt more sustainable business practices.
The first event in Bloomberg's Middle East ESG Series discussed 'The Future of ESG in Qatar' and provided insights into how the country is embracing ESG.
Ahmed Al Hammadi, Chief Investment Officer - Europe, Russia & Turkey, Qatar Investment Authority discussed the ESG strategy in Qatar. He said,“QIA is responsible for the investment strategy to generate strong sustainable returns for the country. We are a future generation fund, so we have to invest for the long term and make sure that all our investments have a positive impact and are sustainable which means to integrate all ESG factors and criteria into the investment policy and doing that requires data.”
“We use all sources of data but we also see our role more importantly encouraging more disclosures from the various companies that we invest in and even potential companies that may be looking to be part of the environment or investment that we focus on,” he added.
Al Hammadi noted“Everything that we do is from an overall sustainability, therefore ESG governance, social and environmental is important. Starting the sustainable drive in last few years it became evident that there are aspects we have taken in account in a lot of our investments and on the back of these investment sustainability, and long-term decisions”.“We do not see that ESG is at odds with to invest in long term, we see it as an enabler. As part of assessment of a company I believe high quality companies score highly on ESG matrix and so it is important that long term investors take ESG matrix into account in making decisions from a pure financial perspective, ESG is crucial for the success of any long-term investor,” he said.
Al Hammadi added,“As a shareholder in companies both locally and internationally, we will continue to encourage companies to have better disclosure and that is one of the main focuses of One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund.” QIA is a founding member of the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Fund Working Group and in 2018 helped produce a framework to integrate climate change analysis into investment decisions – the first of its kind.
Addressing the event, Akber Khan, Senior Director, Asset Management, Al Rayan Investment said,“ESG movement and the push has been building for last five to seven years and both, COVID-19 and the increasing focus on climate change, has helped. It will probably have periods when it is more or less prominent but it is here to stay and it will keep increasing.”
“We push companies very hard on developing the ESG strategy and on their reporting, the reason is that globally more and more capital is being allocated in ESG sensitive basis.” Bassam Slim, Senior Portfolio Manager, Aventicum also expressed views in the webinar.
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