'Sinner-to-saint' firms key to unlocking alpha in ESG

ESG improvements push up prices

There is no shortage of ‘events’ currently afflicting the world. The Q2 results season confirmed significant inflation of raw materials, transport and labour. Covid-19 uncertainty also continues to muddy the waters over the pace of recovery, while US-China tensions continue to simmer.

We have also seen a recent spate of extreme weather events, including severe drought in Brazil, fires in the US and devastating floods in China and Germany. These events have added stress to already disrupted supply chains. However, such weather also underlines that the secular push around tackling climate change and energy transition is never far from the surface. Even as Covid-19 presents an immediate challenge to the world's policymakers, the EU recently published ambitious proposals to reduce carbon emissions across wide areas of the economy. In recent months, we have also seen ES...