Dennis Kwok and Sam Goodman wrote about environmental, social and governance vis-a-vis China risks for Canadian Investment Review, setting out what they think are coming up in terms of new dimensions for the ESG matrix:
“Reports that a leading asset manager is delaying the launch of a Chinese bond fund indefinitely are a clear sign that the facade around Chinese stocks’ and bonds’ environmental, social and governance record may be lifting.
“In recent years, rising investment in Chinese stocks and bonds coincided with a boom in ESG investing. Of course, investing in China on an ESG basis has always been a difficult sell. Despite this, many Western investment funds championed China as a land of ESG-related opportunity — even pushing for its stocks and bonds to have greater weighting in emerging markets indices.”