ESG INVESTMENTS
with ethical providers) and investor sentiment. It’s hard to argue investing like this is niche any more.
Innovation amid crisis What’s interesting about all of these reasons to be cheerful is they emerged during a period when half the world shut down. But it’s true that a crisis often bears innovation, as scientists, engineers and technologists race to find a way to get us out of the hole we’re in. It’s a challenge to imagine any silver linings when the media headlines are full of black clouds. But it’s true that there is good news out there – the world is changing, and changing quickly. ESG champions are now involved in areas
like DNA sequencing and are offering solutions to the issues we face. Thanks to breakthroughs in this area and artificial intelligence (AI), researchers sequenced the Covid-19 virus in just two days, compared with five months for the SARS coronavirus in 2003. As a result, we had the first vaccine against Covid-19 within nine months. And it’s changed us in other ways – retailers have beefed up digital offerings as we stay away from malls and shop online. The take-up of contactless payments like
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Apple Pay and digital wallets like Cash App has soared, as people have shunned cash over handling worries. Working from home means companies are
investing in digital platforms and collaboration tools to protect productivity and make life easier for employees. And consumers’ new nights out are nights in, on our sofas, streaming videos and gaming. Not to mention the advances in online education and telemedicine services, or how AI and robotics have delivered for manufacturing, as supply chains were disrupted and logistics problems impacted production. It’s hard to believe all this happened during a pandemic. But it did. And we should be excited about investing in this over the coming years.
Investment involves risk. The value of investments and the income from them can go down, as well as up, and you may not get back the amount originally invested. This is not a recommendation to invest or disinvest in any of the companies or funds mentioned. Names of companies and funds are included for illustrative purposes only. A version of this article was originally published on
WhatInvestment.co.uk
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