Following Blackrock’s loud noises on climate-friendly investing this week, I thought I’d share my recent thought piece for Prospect Magazine on the future of ethical finance. Enjoy!
Ethical investment funds have been around since the 1980s. The recent growth of environmental consciousness has stoked awareness, and the past two years have seen a big rise in funds that target our consciences. Traditionally these avoid so-called “sin sectors” such as tobacco, alcohol, weapons, gambling, and these days they increasingly abhor oil. More fashionable now are funds that claim to cherry-pick the companies with the most positive impacts on society or the environment.
Research has consistently found that a conscience need not damage your returns; in fact, backing the most progressive companies can be a good financial strategy too. The problem is there are as many opinions about what constitutes “ethical investing” as there are investors. Is an oil company good because it has the best employment practices in the industry, or just bad per se? Should an otherwise cuddly firm fall out of favour when it trips up on an accounting scandal? Is a defence company off limits though weapons may only be a tiny percentage of its business?
Tesla, the electric carmaker, ranks top of the ethical league in the MSCI global index for the greenness of its products, and bottom in the Financial Times index, which only rates the emissions from its factories. It depends what you are measuring. And funds may not do what they say on the tin. They may badge themselves as sustainable, SRI (socially responsible investment) or ESG (environmental, social and governance), yet the working parts can vary wildly.
