Why emerging markets offer the best ESG growth opportunities

Growing awareness of environmental factors

The opportunity set in emerging markets has been the biggest growth area by region for the Impax Environmental Markets investment trust (IEM) since its launch, according to co-manager Bruce Jenkyn-Jones.

He said when the trust was launched in February 2002, "there may have been the odd fund with the name 'environmental' but I do not think anybody was systematically targeting companies that were providing solutions to environmental and sustainability challenges, like this fund is". "Back then it was quite a niche area of the economy and our opportunity set has certainly grown substantially over the last 17 years," he added. The majority of the trust's regional exposure is to the US and Europe, with North America accounting for 43% of geographic exposure and Europe for 36%, while the po...