Sustainability is here to stay

At the beginning of 2020, BlackRock laid a series of steps to make sustainability a key component of our investment approach, driven by an investment conviction that an understanding of sustainability issues is essential to long-term investment performance.

In mid-2020, we surveyed our clients to better understand their drivers and challenges to sustainable investing, how the pandemic has affected their implementation, and how innovation can spur adoption. We heard from 425 investors in 27 countries representing as estimated U.S. $25 trillion in assets under management.

What respondents are saying

54% of global respondents consider sustainable investing to be fundamental to investment processes and outcomes, driven by respondents in EMEA where we see greater rates of adoption. Respondents in APAC and Americas appear to be in the early stages of this journey.

Respondents plan to double their sustainable assets under management in the next five years – rising from 18% of assets under management on average today to 37% on average by 2025. Only 3% of respondents expect to delay their implementation as a result of COVID-19.

53% of global respondents cited the poor quality or availability of Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) data and analytics as the biggest barrier to deeper or broader implementation of sustainable investing, higher than any other barrier that we tested.

When comparing focus on ESG factors, 88% of global respondents ranked Environment as the priority most in focus amongst those choices today, reflecting the urgency that is present by climate change.

ESG Integration and Exclusionary Screens are the two most popular approaches to sustainable investing globally, with 75% and 65% of global respondents, respectively, currently utilizing or considering utilizing these approaches.

Source: https://www.blackrock.com/corporate/about-us/blackrock-sustainability-survey#