Fund manager David Harrison explains how the UN Sustainable Development Goals, which began life as an aspirational target for governments around the world, transitioned to an unofficial framework for ESG investing. But can they really make a difference?
Just a few short years ago, only those in the know were talking about sustainable investing. Today it seems to be everywhere. All that’s missing is a global standard for measuring a company’s ESG performance, says David Harrison, manager of the Rathbone Greenbank Global Sustainability Fund.
After an austere run for many years, the mood music for global companies seems to have stepped up a beat. Businesses are splashing the cash and investing for a new future.
This year has started off on a positive note, with vaccination programmes making rapid progress and keeping investors optimistic about the prospects for the global economic recovery. While bond markets experienced some volatility during the first quarter, the situation stabilised towards the end of the period.
Caution is needed in the active versus passive debate
No one could have predicted the outbreak of COVID-19 and the subsequent measures taken to contain it. The economic impacts of the pandemic reach far and wide but it isn’t all doom and gloom.
Bitcoins, money, and portfolio diversification
With three effective vaccines now in the offing, and the prospect of more to come, investors can look forward to the prospect of economic recovery in 2021 with more clarity.
A lockdown-induced Christmas TV binge didn’t extend quite as far the Wizard of Oz, but “the Great and Terrible” did come up in a conversation about bitcoin.
