In this Q&A from the March issue of ESG Clarity‘s digital magazine, Abbie Llewellyn-Waters, recently appointed head of sustainable investing at Jupiter and manager of the Global Sustainable Equities strategy, discusses the firm’s investment approach, net-zero ambitions and industry challenges around authenticity.
What key themes are you looking at this year?
Climate-related risk is key, both in terms of decarbonisation, but also climate resilience. And social equality will also be of vital importance. For the team, understanding how human capital is supported, and by extension how social equality is addressed by the companies we look to invest in, is a critical element of our investment framework.
As we discussed in the video interview, deep inequalities have been unveiled and exacerbated by Covid-19. US child poverty is already among the highest in the world, reaching 21.2% in 2019 – higher than Romania or Mexico, according to the OECD. Legislation is now planned to address this, by expanding cash benefits to families as part of Biden’s $1.9trn (£1.4trn) economic relief package. But how companies respond to addressing inequality will have a meaningful contribution to addressing these issues.
For the full Q&A, view the latest ESG Clarity digital magazine here.
For the video interview click here.
