Identifying ESG risks and opportunities in alternative investments

Joachim Merten and Callum Macpherson

Alternatives cover a very wide array of assets. More or less anything that is not a direct investment in bonds or stocks in the public market has been classified under this broad term. In this chapter we will not, and cannot, cover all the different aspects of ESG in alternative assets as the topic would require a book in itself to do it justice. Instead, we will try to give a glimpse of the importance of ESG for many of these types of investments. The chapter is split into two parts. The first covers equity and debt investments into unlisted businesses, while the second deals with expressing ESG themed views on traded commodities and considers the ESG implications of the emerging field of cryptocurrencies.

PART 1: PRIVATE EQUITY/DEBT, FUNDS

Joachim Merten

ESG have been a dominant theme in alternative assets since the early 2010s. From real estate to buyout investments, asset managers were challenged to adhere to increasingly stringent standards by regulators as various jurisdictions started to introduce mandatory ESG disclosures for asset managers (Benson et al, 2021). There was also growing demand by the investor community, such as the formalisation of requirements in

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