Given an impetus by the Covid-19 pandemic, and leapt on because of the way it has outperformed traditional asset classes, environmental, social and governance ESG funding has arguably been the global asset class of the year.
The first half of 2020 saw more than $250 billion in issuances versus $341 billion for the whole of last year, according to not-for-profit group Climate Bonds Initiative CBI.
While green financing in Europe has been very much an investor-led process, it has so far been driven by the government in China. That trend could be well sustained as policymakers target President Xi Jinping’s pledge to the United Nations that...