News
KangaNews Sustainable Finance and Commonwealth Bank of Australia conducted their third annual survey of environmental, social and governance sentiment among Australian fixed-income investors in August 2022. Sustainable investment approaches are evolving but asset managers report that, in some cases, they are effectively being forced to take backward steps by asset owners.
The Australian government will launch a public consultation on mandatory climate reporting this year, starting the process of aligning the country with its global peers. Market participants say the move, while overdue, will be a boon to business, capital flows and the country’s reputation as a responsible international citizen.
Stewart Brentnall, chief investment officer, and Alexis Cheang, head of investment stewardship, at TCorp in Sydney, discuss why it is vital for all participants in the investment ecosystem to integrate a broad range of ESG factors into the decision making process.
A pair of Australian sustainability-linked loans completed in September demonstrate the instrument’s evolution and ever-expanding use cases. North Queensland Airports tied its loan to the emerging sustainable finance area of biodiversity, while Pact Group demonstrated the applicability of sustainability-linked funding to the manufacturing sector.
The global sustainable finance market continues to strive for maximum impact and unimpeachable standards for all participants. A group of Australian corporate borrowers, speaking at a September roundtable hosted by ING and KangaNews Sustainable Finance, say external pressures to be best in breed are significant but these align with their own corporate goals.
Susan Barron, London-based global head of sustainable capital markets at Barclays, recently visited Australia to speak with clients on global sustainable finance developments and opportunities. Together with the bank’s Sydney-based head of debt capital markets, Australia and New Zealand, Duncan Beattie, she sat down with KangaNews Sustainable Finance to share the latest on how the environment of 2022 has shaped market evolution.
The size and breadth of the sustainable finance market has grown and with it the ambition of its participants. In September, KangaNews Sustainable Finance and Westpac Institutional Bank hosted a group of borrowers, each of which has expanded the boundaries of what is achievable in the Australian market, to discuss their motivations, aspirations and challenges.