ESG investment: 'Engagement must be forceful to have its maximum impact'

Real action by companies is required

Vicki Bakhshi, director in the Responsible Investment team at BMO Global Asset Management, talks to Pedro Gonçalves about the challenges and achievements of engagement and the big cultural change around responsible investing.

Do you believe engagement is necessary in order to make a difference as an investor? We are big believers in engagement. Climate change and diversity are both examples where you can really see the impact. There are some companies going in the right direction but I think engagement really accelerates it and pushes the pace of change. On board-level gender diversity, I think it has been extremely effective, particularly in markets like the UK, and it is starting to get there in other markets as well. On climate change, getting companies to adopt net-zero targets, I think that genui...