May 24, 2021
The financial industry has always had an affinity for acronyms, and ESG is one that a diverse group of market participants has readily embraced.
Environmental, social, and governance investing is not an entirely new concept. But the technologies used to develop ESG-oriented strategies have advanced since a small group of institutional and retail investors first sought 50 years ago to closely align their values with their investments. And now this once-niche market segment is opening to a much wider audience.
We at S&P Dow Jones Indices estimate that industrywide assets under management for ESG-focused exchange-traded funds (ETFs) increased to $170.4 billion in 2020 from $58.8 billion the prior year. S&P Global Ratings projects sustainability-linked bonds to surpass $700 billion in 2021, while green bond issuance reached nearly $270 billion last year.