Is green the new gold?

When the World Health Organization declared Covid-19 as a pandemic on March 11, 2020, what started as an emerging disease in China, in a few weeks, turned into one of the most serious health crises ever known.

Evidence is mounting as to the devastating economic impact of the pandemic. Equity markets across all financial centres plunged, and the International Monetary Fund (IMF) is expecting growth in Asia to stall at zero per cent in 2020, the worst performance in 60 years.

The world was caught by surprise: a global pandemic was not among top risks for investors. Markets are not set up to anticipate pandemic impact of this nature, as the impending risk of such events has traditionally been overlooked.