Global investment needs to increase by 60% to be sustainable, so Spainsif urges savers to boost the investment budget
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More than two hundred representatives of all stakeholders linked to sustainable investment in Spain have attended the eighth edition of Spainsif’s annual event
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Investors’ response to the challenges of sustainable development, such as climate change or SDG, requires an increase in global investment of close to $1.5 trillion per year.
Madrid, 19 October 2017. More than 200 representatives of financial institutions, insurers, asset managers, SRI service providers, universities, business schools, non-profit organizations and trade unions met today to discuss the state of sustainable investment in Spain, during the eighth annual event of the Sustainable Investment Forum (Spainsif). The event has been sponsored by Bankia, VDOS, Morningstar, Amundi and Donnelley.
Spainsif called for an increase in the global investment budget, where there is a double deficit. On the one hand, Spainsif has identified a first need of $800 billion in infrastructure to support the expected growth of the economies, plus a second gap of $700 billion, which responds to the need to align these investments with sustainable development objectives.
The institutional opening ceremony was attended by representatives of Bankia, which hosted the event, the Ministry of Employment and Social Security, the Directorate General of Insurance and the CNMV, who agreed on highlighting the positive aspects of sustainable investment.
As for the opening conference, Timothée Jaulin provided first-hand information on the response of international investors to climate change and decarbonisation commitments. The first workshop then focused on the experience of various national and international operators on the topic.
The second workshop dealt with the best SRI practices of social impact, with actors representing the different options, who have pooled their contributions, encouraging the development of this type of sustainable investment, with the capacity to provide direct value.
The closing conference was given by Nicole Notat, president of VIGEO-EIRIS, who shared her experience in the process of implementing the ISR label in France, which labels investment and pension funds according to their adherence to the environmental, social and corporate governance (ESG) criteria, an initiative that constitutes a possible reference for the Spanish market.
Finally, Spainsif’s president, Jaime Silos, explained the great challenges of the future in order to consolidate the movement towards majority sustainable investment in Spain. After living a few years of SRI take-off in Spain until near €170,000 million invested with social, environmental and good governance criteria, Silos has warned that, however, the small saver’s share is less than 10% of the total.
Therefore, according to Spainsif’s president, “we must be able to involve citizens in the agenda of responsible investment”. In his view, this will help to meet the major challenges of sustainable development, while creating an opportunity to participate in cost-effective and financially efficient investment instruments. Silos has also invited all the stakeholders in socially responsible investment present at Spainsif’s annual event to build a market that will meet the Sustainable Development Goals as soon as possible.
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