Climate Change 2011 - Links to climate change studies - Roundtables

From Roundtables 03 March 2011

By PWM Editor

The latest Vontobel study entitled "Sustainable Investing in Asia - Uncovering Opportunities and Risks" shows that investors are significantly underestimating the topic of sustainability in Asia as there is a very high return potential for sustainable investments in the Asian region (excl. Japan) and the volume could increase from the current USD 20 billion up to USD 4,000 billion.

In addition, the study examines on the one side the tremendous pace of change in social, environmental and corporate governance standards in the region and on the other the fact that although investors recognise the corresponding risks they underestimate the opportunities, thanks to the major progress achieved in data availability, to identify Asian companies with high standards of sustainability and consequently to optimise their investment strategy accordingly.

http://www.vontobel.com/en/about_vontobel/sustainability/publications/

Vontobel Climate Strategy:

http://www.vontobel.com/en/about_vontobel/sustainability/climate_strategy/

Our subsidiary, Harcourt - fund of hedge funds business has a sustainable fund:

The Belair initiative

Overview Belair

The Belair initiative is a close collaboration between Folksam/KPA, Storebrand and Harcourt. Belair (Lux) Sustainable Alternatives SRI Fund was launched in November 2007 and is a global fund of hedge funds open to external investors that adheres to an institutional SRI framework. The fund of hedge funds offers diversified SRI compliant exposure across markets and hedge fund strategies in order to provide long term, stable risk adjusted performance. All underlying hedge funds, through a combination of customized managed accounts and bilateral agreements, adhere to the SRI framework jointly defined by Folksam/KPA and Storebrand, implemented by Harcourt.

Hedge funds compliant to the Belair SRI framework

Each underlying hedge fund in Belair is selected based on their unique skill-set in employing a certain hedge fund strategy. Each hedge fund then restricts their exposure to a predefined list of SRI compliant instruments. More than 3,000 companies are screened on an ongoing basis to verify compliance to the SRI Policy. The hedge funds are monitored on an ongoing basis to ensure that any exposure expressed in Belair remains compliant to the approved list of instruments and thereby to the SRI framework. This process is audited by PWC annually.

http://www.harcourt.ch/cms/hauptseite/zeigeBereich/114/zeigeBereich/115/the-belair-initiative.html

Global Trend Investing

http://funds.vontobel.com/EN/showpage.aspx?pageID=10

www.am.natixis.com/climatechange

SRI-related studies:

2010 European SRI Study: http://www.eurosif.org/research/eurosif-sri-study/2010

2010 HNWI & Sustainable Investment Study: http://www.eurosif.org/research/hnwi-a-sustainable-investment/2010

2009 Investment Consultants & Responsible Investment Study: http://www.eurosif.org/research/investment-consultants-and-responsible-investment

Sector reports touching on the climate change issue:

Infrastructure: http://www.eurosif.org/research/sector-reports/infrastructure

Extractives: http://www.eurosif.org/research/sector-reports/extractives

Shipping: http://www.eurosif.org/research/sector-reports/shipping