Sustainable Views: Big Growth In Asia Pacific’s ESG Finance Set To Speed Up Standardisation
February 16, 2022
Tapping into this growth opportunity today, however, requires careful consideration for global investors. For instance, the constituent markets of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations regional bloc (representing about 655 million people) have developed a set of green bond guidelines based on the International Capital Market Association’s green bond principles, contextualised to meet local conditions. Similarly, in Japan, the government has developed its own guidelines, also based on ICMA standards, but with local variations.
“As an investor, things are incredibly tricky because if you’re following some regulation or some standard - whether it’s from the National Development and Reform Commission in China [or another Asia-Pacific jurisdiction] - you need to be confident that that regime is going to be, if not the gold standard, at least globally recognised.
Otherwise, you will still have to rebalance your portfolio later,” says David Howard-Jones, a partner at management consulting firm Oliver Wyman.
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