**The $50 Trillion Question** The UN Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are a global call to action to end poverty, protect the planet and ensure that all people enjoy peace and prosperity by 2030, but the targets are at risk of not being met. For the world to achieve the UN’s SDGs by the deadline, more funding must flow into emerging markets, where it is needed most.
To uncover where investment is going currently – and how we can make sure more of it is channelled into emerging markets and the SDGs – we spoke to a panel of asset managers responsible for a combined USD50 trillion of assets under management (AUM).
For more detail on the panel and how their responses have been used in this research please visit the methodology at the back of this report.
Who are the panel?
How do we close the emerging market sustainable investment gap? This is the $50 Trillion Question.
The answers:
Emerging markets are seeing a shortfall in investment: Almost two-thirds (64 per cent) of the $50 Trillion Investor Panel’s AUM is currently invested in Europe and North America. Asia, which includes a number of developed markets, takes 22 per cent, whereas only 10 per cent is invested in the Middle East, Africa and South America combined
Investment isn’t going where it is needed to realise the SDGs: Only 13 per cent of our panel’s AUM is currently directed towards SDG-linked investments and one fifth of the asset managers we spoke to are not aware of the SDGs
By helping to close the emerging market and sustainable investment gaps, investors can achieve returns and impact simultaneously: 88 per cent of investors say their emerging market investments have matched or outperformed developed markets over the past three years
Sustainable investment is gathering pace: More than eight in 10 firms (81 per cent) have moved beyond screening to a more focused and integrated approach to environmental, social and governance (ESG) investment
However, so far, it isn’t nearly enough: SDG investment is still trillions of dollars short of the capital needed to meet their 2030 target
COVID-19 has made the imperative to act even stronger: 70 per cent of investors believe the pandemic has widened the capital gap between emerging and developed markets
The $50 Trillion Question:
Are emerging markets getting the private-sector investment they need for the SDGs to be achieved by 2030?
14 per cent of investors on the $50 Trillion Investor Panel are currently using the SDGs as a framework
Why is there an emerging market investment shortfall?
The main barriers to emerging-market investment:
This is despite the relative (out)performance of emerging market investments
Why aren’t investors focused on the SDGs?
Barriers to benchmarking investments against the SDGs
How do we close the emerging market sustainable investment gap?
Main drivers for SDG investment
