Winterthur – At the Swiss Green Economy Symposium 2023 in Winterthur, the factors that promote or hinder a sustainable financial system were also analyzed. The experts agreed that higher market shares for sustainable investment are strongly related to a professionalization and digital orientation of the players.
“Sustainability and digitization also go hand in hand when it comes to financial issues,” said Simon Tribelhorn at the Swiss Green Economy Symposium 2023 in Winterthur. The CEO of the Liechtenstein Bankers Association(LBA) was one of the expert speakers who analyzed success factors and challenges for a sustainable financial sector.
The signs are green. For example, sustainability-related funds accounted for more than half of the total Swiss fund market in terms of volume in 2022. In this context, the co-head of research at the sustainable rating agency Inrate, Moritz Reisser, emphasized: “The data situation for evaluating sustainability activities is improving all the time. In addition, the analysis benefits from automations.”
Experts very much welcome optimizations in this field, because the data situation is still incomplete. Senior ESG Officer Fabio Oliveira of Zurich Invest provided a detailed insight into the decarbonization trends of different investment types: “For equities, the data quality is very high, but especially for bonds, the data coverage is much lower.” On the other hand, measuring the impact of sustainable investments is still difficult in some cases, added Christin ter Braak-Forstinger of Chi Impact Capital. It is most likely to be guaranteed in the impact investing sector. There, sustainable solutions would be driven forward immediately.
New approaches, according to the tenor, promise more transparency and cooperation. LBV CEO Tribelhorn, for example, pointed to the opportunities presented by blockchain. The LBV has put their advantages to the test as part of a CO2 project: “In terms of energy consumption, the blockchain platforms are worlds apart,” says Tribelhorn. “The comparison is worthwhile.”
In addition, the potential of blended finance in development aid was highlighted by many. These are funding mechanisms in which private money is acquired for projects in addition to public or philanthropic funds. ce/yvh
