FOSTERING THE NEXT GENERATION OF SUSTAINABLE INVESTING PROFESSIONALS IN APAC

by abrdn

The Asia-Pacific region is often described as critical when it comes to addressing global sustainability challenges, and for good reasons.

TheAsia-Pacific region is often described as critical when it comes to addressing global sustainability challenges, and for good reasons. The region accounts for about 45% of global greenhouse gas emissions, while being particularly vulnerable to the impacts of climate change. The COVID-19 pandemic has unfortunately slowed progress in APAC and the region is not on track to meeting the 2030 targets of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Despite this, there are significant opportunities, with $3.1tn of investments needed annually to reach net-zero by 2050 in APAC , which could bring along significant socio-economic co-benefits such as improved energy security, cleaner air as well as safer jobs and livelihoods.

However, there is no silver bullet to address these challenges, and this requires ambitious action and collaboration between a wide range of stakeholders. Among these, the financial sector plays a critical role.

Asset managers such as abrdn, institutional investors such as pension funds, insurance companies and sovereign wealth funds, but also individual retail investors – all can make a difference by choosing which companies to invest in and under what conditions. This role is increasingly well understood, as demonstrated by the increasing demand from investors and the constantly rising volumes of assets that are managed using various sustainable investment approaches.

However, the term ‘sustainable investing’ is multi-faceted, covering many different approaches and subject to varying interpretations. Some investors are also still reluctant to invest in such strategies, fearing higher risks or lower returns.

For abrdn, sustainable investing has been a reality for the past 30 years. What started with a focus on good corporate governance gradually expanded to cover the full spectrum of Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) aspects, ranging from climate change and environmental degradation to human rights, working conditions and executive pay. We believe that companies with good ESG practices are better positioned and may be better investments over the long term.

In 2021, we launched the abrdn Sustainability Institute, APAC. Our mission is clear: to leverage our in-house expertise – both globally and in APAC – to develop investment solutions that are relevant to our APAC clients, and to create a community of knowledge on sustainable investing, thereby contributing to regional progress on the sustainability front.

One aspect we identified early on was the need to build the capacity of the next generation of finance professionals on sustainable investing. Regardless of seniority levels, candidates with sustainability-related experience are in high demand, across an increasing range of roles – from investment specialists to data analysts and compliance profession- als. We sought to address this issue through different ways.

Leveraging on our internal expertise and working with the Investment Management Association of Singapore (IMAS), of which abrdn is a long-standing and active member, we developed a one-hour e-learning module focusing on the fundamentals of sustainable investing. While our initial target audience were university students in Singapore, we quickly realized there was also a demand for such training among our clients and prospects.

IMAS maintains an education portal called iLearn, which curates training programmes for investment management professionals to broaden and deepen their skills and expertise on a wide range of topics. Our joint abrdnIMAS module is available on this platform and is made freely available to students across a wide range of schools and universities in Singapore, as well as to selected clients. So far, more than 560 participants registered for the course and received their completion certificate, including more than 200 students from five educational institutions in Singapore. We are currently in the process of seeking accreditation by the Institute of Banking & Finance (IBF) under existing professional development schemes in Singapore.

In 2022, we also launched an innovative internship program through which we hired ten interns for sustainability-focused roles across various business lines in Singapore,

Malaysia and Australia and enrolled them in a course from the University of Cambridge Institute for Sustainability Leadership (CISL). As part of their roles, our interns provided us with recommendations on how to further improve on our corporate sustainability and sustainable investing practices.

The abrdn Sustainability Institute, APAC also organized our inaugural Sustainability Week in May 2022, a week-long series of events with clients across the region, culminating with our first Sustainability Summit. During this whole-day conference, we convened a wide range of professionals, from institutional investors to funds distributors, civil society, financial regulators and corporates, to exchange on sustainability and sustainable investing matters of relevance to the region.

With these steps – and more to come – we hope to contribute to capacity-building for the existing and next generations of investment professionals, in Singapore as well as in the wider Asia-Pacific region.

About abrdn

We offer investment expertise across all key asset classes, regions and markets so that our clients can capture investment potential wherever it arises.

By combining market and economic insight with technology and diverse perspectives, we look for optimal ways to help investors navigate the future and reach their financial goals.

And by putting environmental, social and governance (ESG) considerations at the heart of our process, we can invest for a better future. By ensuring the assets we invest in are ready for and resilient to a world in transition, we act as guardians of our clients’ assets.

The Course: abrdn-IMAS Sustainable Investing in Practice - An Introduction

Through this one-hour self-paced course, participants will explore ESG risks and opportunities, approaches to sustainable investing and their practical implications, key regulatory developments and recent case studies.

Learning objectives:

• Explore the environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities that underpin sustainable investing;

• Understand the key drivers and different approaches to sustainable investing;

• Understand the practical implications of active ownership and net-zero investing;

• Explore the main sustainability regulatory developments affecting asset managers;

• Learn about the influence of sustainability on financial performance and returns.

We are pleased to be able to enable all Britcham members access to this course for free. Please use the code abrdnesg_britcham at https://imas.thinkific.com/courses/sustainable-investing-in-practice-an-introduction

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