Several countries in Latin America and the Caribbean have an adequate renewable energy generation capacity, abundant water resources and other favorable conditions to diversify the power generation matrices and decarbonize energy-intensive industrial segments. Breaking down legal, regulatory, financial, technical and market barriers can help them lead the charge on clean energy initiatives.
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The financial sector must identify opportunities to contribute to the society where they operate and create business models and strategies that not only consider risks and returns, but also impact in the broader sense.
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Some companies are still expecting that regulators come up with sustainability guidelines, but others are moving fast, making a valuable contribution to a cleaner future, and reaping the benefits: new business opportunities, more stakeholder engagement and contributions to their country commitments.
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Crisis management goes beyond communications. Recent events highlight how digital technology can both strengthen and hinder any recuperation efforts.
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Attitudes towards environmental, social and governance factors are changing across the investment and lending community in Latin America and the Caribbean. Financial impacts associated with extreme weather events, growing regulatory and industry pressures on climate-related risk disclosure, and enhanced availability of data, are key aspects influencing companies’ views of environmental, climate, social and governance (ESG) factors. As a result, the role of ESG analysis is shifting from an ancillary function to an integral part of fundamental analysis and new business propositions. IDB Invest’s annual Sustainability Week (Lima, Peru – May 7-9, 2018) took a pulse on this shift, exploring wider sectoral trends within agribusiness, infrastructure, and banking sectors. For the financial community, in particular, there were four key messages from Sustainability Week:
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In January 2018, Larry Fink, the CEO of BlackRock published an open letter to the CEOs of publicly traded companies. His message was clear, companies have a responsibility to deliver profit, and make “a positive contribution to society.” Failure to do the latter comes at the risk of losing its license to operate. Consumers can influence through decisions to purchase products from companies that value broader corporate goals of environmental impact, workforce diversity, and community engagement. What may come as a surprise statement from a private equity fund with $6 trillion under management is increasingly the de facto market standard.
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