‘Inconceivable’ that topic of climate change will somehow go away: MSCI president

IT HAS been 14 years since index provider MSCI paid US$1.6 billion for a risk management platform called RiskMetrics Group, and used it to build an environmental, social and governance (ESG) research arm. Little did the index provider imagine the opportunity it had stumbled on to. Or, perhaps it did have some idea.

“The history of MSCI is such that where today we have some measure of success, it’s typically that we have got ahead of a trend in investing,” said Baer Pettit, the company’s president and chief operating officer.

“Going way back in time, decades ago, that was in different categories: benchmarking, and risk management, and portfolio construction. I think the most recent big example – and there are lots of smaller examples – has been in ESG and climate.”