Top 3 ESG trends to keep up with in 2022

2021 was “the year of ESG Investing”(Reuters,2021), ESG-focused funds increased rapidly from $285 billion in 2019, $542 billion in 2020 to a staggering $649 billion in 2021 (through Nov.30). The MSCI World ESG Leaders’ index has performed remarkably well in 2021, rising by over 22%, in comparison, MSCI World Index gained only 15%. As we become increasingly aware of the urgency of addressing the sustainable development goals, governments, consumers and companies themselves are calling for influential businesses and decision-makers to lead the transition. What used to be criticised by sceptic as “greenwashing” has now become standard practice — every company need to start disclosing their ESG impact with credible data. As technologies such as IoT, AI, Satellite improve, greenwashing will soon recede, and data will become the common language for companies to make companies’ ESG effort transparent. Such enhancement in credibility, coupled with the levelling up of international and national standards related to ESG issues, ESG investing will definitely keep thriving in the upcoming year of 2022.

1. From Green to Blue

We have paid most of our attention to things happening on the terrestrial land — the Amazon rainforests, the Sahara desert when talking about climate change and environmental protection. As COVID-19 shut down the world…