Young Fundpicker: ESG through the lens of the Ukrainian crisis

Questions around energy and armaments

The ESG movement has placed the need for responsible moral decision-making at the heart of investment processes, yet the war in Ukraine has exposed the challenge of such decision-making in a world of huge moral complexity where simple right and wrong choices are hard to find.

By way of example, it may seem straightforward to assert that investing in any armaments would not meet most ESG fund criteria. Yet many people are in support of UK aid contributing toward active military intervention in the Ukraine to support vulnerable civilian populations. The lesson for our industry is surely that, rather than presenting ethical investing as a simple foolproof response to the world's problems, we must instead find innovative ways to offer individual investors the ability to make these moral judgements through clear and cost-effective products and services. War i...