{"id":90725,"date":"2020-04-16T01:54:07","date_gmt":"2020-04-15T23:54:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/opinion\/sustainability-themes-present-multi-year-opportunities\/"},"modified":"2020-04-16T01:54:07","modified_gmt":"2020-04-15T23:54:07","slug":"sustainability-themes-present-multi-year-opportunities","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/opinion\/sustainability-themes-present-multi-year-opportunities\/","title":{"rendered":"Sustainability themes present multi-year opportunities"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><em> <strong>If we look back to the start of the year, climate change was very much at the top of the<br \/>\ninvestor agenda, said Charlie Thomas, Head of Strategy, Environment &#038; Sustainability.<br \/>\nHowever, it\u2019s fair to say that COVID-19 has knocked it off the top spot, and rightly so,<br \/>\nas it requires an immediate focus. Charlie has been asked by many clients whether this<br \/>\nmeans sustainability will be put on the backburner, but he doesn\u2019t think the answer is<br \/>\nblack and white.<\/strong> <\/em><\/p>\n<p>In the short term, there have been some negative developments: power prices across Europe<br \/>\nare down significantly year-on-year, which is impacting carbon prices; there have been delays<br \/>\nin renewable energy auctions; the UN Climate Change Conference (\u2018COP26\u2019) has been<br \/>\ndelayed, and the venue has been turned into a hospital; and Trump is rolling back fuelefficiency standards. However, on the flipside, we\u2019ve seen some positive changes too. For<br \/>\nexample, the EU has made it clear that it will incorporate environmental issues and its Green<br \/>\nDeal framework into its COVID-19 recovery plans. In addition, lots of clean energy projects are<br \/>\nstill being financed; China has delayed the phasing out of its subsidies; and there is still<br \/>\nongoing M&#038;A in the sector, despite the backdrop.<\/p>\n<p>Once the current crisis abates, we will see the focus return to longer-term issues around<br \/>\nsustainability, and probably with a heightened focus on stewardship, in Charlie\u2019s view. Inflows<br \/>\nfor the sector have been positive, which shows that investors are still thinking about the longerterm landscape. There\u2019s been wide dispersion in returns from the companies held in the<br \/>\nstrategy\u2019s portfolios so far, with some share prices up year-to-date, while others have been<br \/>\nhurt badly. However, Charlie believes it\u2019s important to remember that many of the<br \/>\nenvironmental and sustainable themes can present multi-year, if not multi-decade,<br \/>\nopportunities. He and the team will look to take advantage of any underappreciated<br \/>\nopportunities that arise as a result of the recent market turmoil.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>If we look back to the start of the year, climate change was very much at the top of the<br \/>\ninvestor agenda, said Charlie Thomas, Head of Strategy, Environment &#038; Sustainability.<br \/>\nHowever, it\u2019s fair to say that COVID-19 has knocked it off the top spot, and rightly so,<br \/>\nas it requires an immediate focus.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":90723,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1480],"tags":[1655,1826,1682,1651,2087,1453,2068,1685],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90725"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=90725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/90725\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/90723"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=90725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=90725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/beta.next-finance.net\/en\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=90725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}