Asked how investors and companies had changed perceptions of ESG over the years, Fidelity’s global head of stewardship and sustainable investing, Jenn-Hui Tan, said investors had realised they had less time to wait.
“ESG will always be about the outcome, what has changed is investors have less patience to wait for that outcome. The climate emergency has been recognised and we don’t have five years to wait anymore so the timeframe that investors expect change has been shortened,” he said.
Danielle Welsh-Rose, ESG investment director at Aberdeen Standard Investments, said: “It used to be that investors were interested in carbon footprint but over the last year, investors have become more interested in climate transition and are asking firms for evidence of what firms are doing to support that.