As the war in Ukraine rages, finance professionals on Wall Street and in Europe recently attracted outrage by suggesting that investing in arms manufacturers should be treated as ethical investing. In the fight against tyranny, they argued that such an investment “preserves peace and global stability” and defends “the values of liberal democracies”. As such, it belongs in the increasingly lucrative investment category known as ESG or environmental, social and governance.
ESG is viewed as a kitemark for socially conscious investing. If you tick a box that says you want your pension or savings to be invested ethically, whoever looks after your money will put it into ESG funds – meaning funds that hold only companies with an ESG rating.
Unfortunately, the label is not currently worth the paper that it’s written on – and not only because of the controversy over defence contractors. My recent research shows that this completely undermines ESG’s potential as a force for good. As we shall see, however, regulators are at least making moves in the right direction.
