Yes, climate-smart investing can be done

DELEGATES are gearing up for the COP25 UN Climate Change Conference in Madrid, Spain, to bring renewed attention to the climate emergency. Climate change is the defining issue of our times and, without urgent action, could push an additional 75 million people in East and South Asia into extreme poverty by 2030.

The Asian Development Bank estimates that South-east Asia will feel the brunt of this economic impact with an 11 per cent dip in its GDP by the end of the century, as a result of damage to agriculture, tourism and fishing - along with human health and labour productivity.

This is bad news to organisations which are going about business as usual. The fundamental job of capital markets is to ensure that savings flow to the best projects, but what if those projects are about to go over a cliff?