The findings came in Kroll’s ESG and Global Investor Returns Study, which examines the relationship between historical returns of publicly traded companies and their ESG ratings globally. Kroll analysed data on more than 13,000 companies.

In Asia, ESG “leaders” earned an average annual return of 11.6 per cent, which is double the 5.8 per cent earned by “laggards.” However, 38 per cent of Asian companies were rated as ESG laggards, with only 6 per cent being considered leaders (as of December 2021). In contrast, North America had 17 per cent laggards, while Western Europe had 6 per cent.

ESMA
Europe’s markets' watchdog is sticking to its plan to restrict the use of “ESG” and “sustainability” in fund names, shrugging off of criticism from asset managers, Bloomberg reported. 

The indices indeed underperformed their benchmarks, after significant outperformance in 2020 and 2021. However, in both equities and the fixed income, it is noticeable that the most visible, ‘greenest’ areas of SI, green economy equities and green bonds were the areas of the largest underperformance."