Entries for 'ESG'

Amid tighter monetary and financial market conditions, ESG fund flows remain subdued and volatile. After large outflows in March, April saw a slight recovery in investor appetite for ESG funds. However, outflows from emerging market ESG funds accelerated in April.

The ESG debt universe hit $5.1 trillion in Q1 2023, up from $3.8 trillion a year ago and $2.3 trillion in Q1 2021. Amid the recent banking sector turmoil, ESG loan issuance fell sharply in Q1 2023, coming in at $40 billion—over 65% lower than in Q4 2022. In contrast, ESG bond issuance reached its highest level in five quarters.

At our IIF Sustainable Finance and Global Debt & Financial Stability Roundtables last week, key themes included net zero transition finance as well as the impact of higher funding costs for vulnerable sovereign and corporate borrowers.

Some $120 billion was added to the debt pile of frontier markets in 2022, bringing it to an all-time high of $3.6 trillion.

The nominal USD value of global debt declined by some $4 trillion to slightly below $300 trillion in 2022. Helped by stronger growth and inflation, global debt/GDP fell again in 2022 – but is still above pre-pandemic levels.

ESG fund flows have picked up, amid easier financial conditions and growing demand. Global climate flows surpassed $1.1 billion in 2022 - up over 25% from $870 billion in 2021. On average, ESG stocks and bonds are up by some 5% in 2023 ytd. Global sustainable/ESG debt issuance was down over 15% to $1.3 trillion in 2022, from $1.5 trillion in 2021. We project global ESG debt issuance to climb to $1.7 trillion in 2023 and near $2 trillion in 2024.

The ESG debt universe is fast approaching the $5 trillion mark, up from $3.4 trillion in 2021. While rising global rates weighed on total issuance in 2022, issuance in emerging markets remained strong, reaching an all-time high of $260 billion—mostly driven by China.

ESG backlash will continue to be a headwind for market development, but there are many reasons for optimism...

We are pleased to share the latest edition of our new quarterly chartbook, designed to monitor sustainable flows (to ESG funds, climate finance flows, and climate finance to emerging markets), ESG market development, the electric vehicle industry, and the evolution of the voluntary carbon market.  The chartbook also includes our regular ESG Country Scorecard—a useful indicator of progress in areas including carbon efficiency as well as broader environmental and social issues in emerging and frontier markets. We welcome your comments!

With higher interest rates weighing on issuance, global debt edged lower again in Q3 2022, to some $290 trillion.

The ESG debt universe has grown rapidly, to near $4.5tr in Q322, up from $3tr in Q321 and $1.5tr in Q320. However, overall ESG debt issuance has slowed sharply this year amid broader debt market disruption.

Climate finance and ESG investing were top themes at our IIF Annual Membership Meeting and the IMF/WB Annuals; Energy security concerns, inflationary pressures and budget strains are jeopardizing timetables for climate goals.

At around $1.3 trillion, ESG loans account for over 30% of the total ESG debt universe. Global ESG loan issuance has soared from less than $40 billion in 2013 to $265 billion by Aug. 2022, mostly due to increased interest in sustainability-linked loans. ESG loan markets offer great potential for mobilizing climate finance--including for emerging and developing economies.

Following four quarters of consecutive decline, the global debt-to-GDP ratio is edging back up, approaching 350% of GDP in Q2 2022. We expect the global debt ratio to reach 352% of GDP by end-2022.

We extend coverage of our emerging market (EM) ESG scorecard to more vulnerable frontier markets (FMs); While EMs have a higher average ESG score than FMs, the top 3 in FM score better than EM’s highest scorer.

Global sustainable/ESG debt issuance exceeded $645 billion in H1 2022; while some 15% below year-ago levels, this was double the pace of H1 2020. Sustainability-linked bond and loan markets also saw robust issuance in H1 2022.

While flows to ESG funds fell for the second consecutive quarter in Q2 2022, they remain in positive territory year to date—in sharp contrast to large outflows from conventional funds; Moreover, recent weeks have seen indications of a robust pickup in investor appetite for ESG-aligned debt and equity; ESG debt issuance reached $330 billion in Q2 2022, up from $315 billion in Q1, helped by surging issuance in China; In contrast, total issuance in voluntary carbon offset markets continued to decline in Q2 2022, with most of the volume coming from India, the U.S. and China.