A record year for "ethical" ESG funds

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) funds are coming of age. Fund network Calastone says that UK-based ESG funds saw £362m of inflows in July, a new monthly record. Investors have added £1.2bn to ESG investments since April, a figure “greater than all the previous five years combined”.

One concern about ESG investing is that by excluding parts of the investment universe (such as tobacco stocks) investors are impairing their returns. Yet S&P Global Market Intelligence found that of 17 American ESG-orientated exchange traded and mutual funds, 14 enjoyed higher returns than the S&P 500 in the first seven months of 2020. Low exposure to energy stocks, hit hard by crashing oil prices, helps explain why.

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As the tech giants have been dogged by controversies over “data privacy, labour practices and monopolistic behaviour” some question just how ‘ethical’ these investments really are. Yet other ESG funds refuse to hold Apple or Facebook at all. That inconsistency is a reminder that the ESG label says little about what is in a fund. If you want to know exactly where your cash is going, there is no substitute for doing your own research.

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Alex is an investment writer who has been contributing to MoneyWeek since 2015. He has been the magazine’s markets editor since 2019.

Alex has a passion for demystifying the often arcane world of finance for a general readership. While financial media tends to focus compulsively on the latest trend, the best opportunities can lie forgotten elsewhere.

He is especially interested in European equities – where his fluent French helps him to cover the continent’s largest bourse – and emerging markets, where his experience living in Beijing, and conversational Chinese, prove useful.

Hailing from Leeds, he studied Philosophy, Politics and Economics at the University of Oxford. He also holds a Master of Public Health from the University of Manchester.