Strengthening environmental, social, and governance investment under COVID-19

While greater public and private investment is needed to support economic recovery in the wake of the coronavirus disease (COVID-19), the longer-term outlook for economies depends on new capital flows that consider the advancement of sustainable growth, environmental conservation, and human rights and safety. Environmental, social, and governance (ESG) investment has been increasing steadily, even during the pandemic, and can play a pivotal role in solving environmental and social problems by altering the use of private funds. However, major obstacles to its onward growth include unclear and dispersed criteria for sustainable investment, a lack of corporate disclosure, and incomplete methodologies for assessing nonfinancial information. The book investigates the conditions needed to promote ESG investment and offers insights on leveraging ESG factors to accelerate sustainable economic development in Asia. It includes timely discussions on ESG investment’s role in building a sustainable society under crisis, the effectiveness of ESG scoring, and the future direction of ESG regulation and policy frameworks after the COVID-19 pandemic.