The Takeaway
Major destabilizing influences on the global economy that were viewed as major threats a year ago— specifically the war in Ukraine and its impact on energy markets—have now become the “new normal”.
All asset owners saw ESG considerations as financially significant, but a range of views on the relevance of impact objectives as goals were expressed.
Climate considerations are broadening and deepening beyond carbon to include a larger set of environmental issues.
A Global Survey of Institutional Investor Priorities and Perspectives
Institutional asset owners play an important role in the global capital markets. Acting as fiduciaries, they oversee some of the world’s largest pools of capital, steering investment policy on behalf of pension plans, foundations, endowments, and sovereign wealth funds.
Last year, Morningstar Indexes and Morningstar Sustainalytics piloted an annual multi-phase global survey of asset owners designed to better understand their motivations, attitudes, and challenges in the current environment, and we recently completed the first phase of our 2023 study, which consisted of direct qualitative conversations with ten hand-selected asset owners.
Our interviewees represented a range of institutional types and sizes across North America, Europe, and Asia, including one investment consultant. Our intent with these in-depth discussions was to probe for perspectives and issues to help inform our broader quantitative study, to be fielded later this year.
Topics explored included:
- Views on the macro environment and regulation
- Convictions about the materiality and impact of ESG considerations
- Broadening of climate considerations
- Opinions on the availability and quality of ESG data and analysis
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