ESG
The ESG Phenomenon: MSCI Launches New Screening Tools
The latest developments in the environmental, social and governance-driven investments and banking space.
MSCI
Market index and investment data group MSCI is launching a set of tools
to help investors identify firms that could harm biodiversity and
cause damage to forests.
The tools are examples of the kind of solutions the investment
sector is developing to tackle environmental challenges such as
species loss.
The new screening tools combine thousands of ESG and climate data
points, overlayed with MSCI’s proprietary geolocation data that
helps pinpoint a company’s operations. MSCI intends to make the
tools available in early 2023.
Tools include:
MSCI Biodiversity-Sensitive Areas Screening Metrics;
and
MSCI Deforestation Screening Metrics.
At a time when there have been concerns about firms trying to
massage their green credentials – aka “greenwashing” – there is
need for more rigorous ways to know if investments do what they
say.
“Global biodiversity challenges, such as the spread of invasive
species, land-use change, and pollution, will have very tangible
impacts on the way in which companies function in the near- and
long-term future. MSCI aims to help institutional investors
understand those risks on the portfolio level,” Nadia Laine,
executive director, head of ESG products at MSCI, said.
