Nigel Green, Chief Executive Officer of deVere Group, said the deepening global energy crisis underscores for investors the undeniable value, necessity and rewards of sustainable investing.
“The global energy crunch triggered by the world economy rebounding from the pandemic faster than was anticipated is impacting households and businesses across the world.
“From ongoing and increasing blackouts in China and India, to mass panic-buying in the UK and Europe, and urgent calls from the U.S. for OPEC nations to up oil production as fears continue to grow, the crisis is going to get a lot worse as the northern hemisphere moves into winter when energy demand is even greater.”
The chief executive added that price surges are now in danger of pushing back the critical transition towards cleaner energy sources, but that savvy investors will be taking a wider, longer-term look at the situation.
“They will see that the current energy crisis is a combination of factors – including ongoing geopolitical tensions to which there are no quick fixes, and infrastructure and supply issues – and that these problems are not going away. It will bring into sharp focus that rather than staying with fossil fuels, the longer-term answer to this and future energy crunches is ESG (environmental, social and governance) investing.”
deVere Group clients are increasingly exposed to ESG investments, having grown from 26% in June 2020 to 44% one year later. Nigel Green sees the global energy crisis as an opportunity for more ESG as well as three key factors pushing the movement.
“First, governments and regulators are becoming increasingly supportive of ESG criteria which boosts investor confidence. For instance, despite recent alarm over energy prices, the United States is putting climate concerns temporarily on the back burner, yet the Biden Administration is overall taking a tougher approach on the use of fossil fuels and is promising swift action to tackle climate change.
“Additionally, the new chairman of the Securities and Exchange Commission, the U.S.’s financial regulator, Gary Gensler, is a proponent and is likely to strengthen investment and disclosure rules to help the U.S. catch up with Europe.
“Second, as millennials who are more likely to seek responsible investment options, become the major beneficiaries of the largest intergenerational transfer of wealth—an estimated $30 trillion in the next few years—we can expect both retail and institutional investors to continue to pile into ESG.
“And third, the pandemic has focused minds on the fact that the health of our planet directly affects human health which, in turn, affects the way we all live and work.
The ESG umbrella term covers three main factors. E is for the environment and includes issues such as climate change policies, carbon footprint and use of renewable energies. S is for social and includes workers’ rights and protections. Finally, G is for governance and includes diversity of the board and corporate transparency.
The deVere CEO concludes: “It’s becoming increasingly clear that the best way and most sustainable way to solve this and future energy crises is to accelerate the transition towards cleaner power.”
