瑞士百达Laurent Ramsey：投资者如何参与并加速实现向低碳经济和自然受益型经济转型?

女士们，先生们，你们好，我很荣幸也很高兴从日内瓦参加今天的年会。我是瑞士百达集团管理合伙人兼瑞士百达资产管理联席首席执行官雷乐仁（Laurent Ramsey）。诚挚感谢全球财富管理论坛2023年会的邀请，以及谢谢主办方为我们交流见解和想法提供这个绝佳平台。

瑞士百达集团成立于瑞士日内瓦，至今已有218年的历史。我们的业务以资产管理、财富管理、另类投资和资产服务为主。40多年前我们开始在亚洲设立办公室，近20年来一直为我们的国际客户投资中国市场，并于2020年在中国开展在岸业务。 

可持续发展与瑞士百达自身息息相关。过去200多年，坚持长远思维一直是我们经营和发展业务的核心理念。我们集团的管理合伙人通常任职超过20年。作为一家代代相传的私有制企业，我们时常思考一个问题：应该把什么传给下一代？考虑的不仅是我们的投资，还有他们将继承的环境。这是我们作为一家企业所肩负的重要责任。

我们从上世纪90年代就开始进行环境、社会、管治（ESG）相关领域的投资，并于2000年推出首个环境主题股票策略，重点关注水资源。如今，我们已成为资产管理规模（AUM）最大的环境主题资产管理公司之一。 

放眼未来几十年，我坚信，作为资产所有者和管理者，我们若能以可持续的方式思考并采取负责任的行动，则能收获广阔机遇，但如果我们不这样做，将面临巨大风险。

由于任何经济体系都无法免受严重气候变化的影响，因此它所带来的风险无法轻易分散或对冲。作为普遍所有者(universal owners)，我们与经济体系及所有行业中的代表性部分的关系密不可分。有些人可能会认为，将ESG因素纳入投资决策过程，是脱离我们向客户提供财务绩效的信托责任。然而，我坚信这样做百利而无一害。 

主动型资产管理行业的核心功能之一是价格发现：通过数据收集、筛选和分析来找到价格低效，从而得出可操作的投资决策。关键在于制定相应的规则，以稳健和可重复的方式，循序渐进地整合对金融资产价格有重大影响的相关信息。 

我们作为主动型管理人的角色并未改变，但提供经风险调整的最佳回报所需的投入发生了变化。我们已经认识到，环境和社会因素不容忽视。

我们这里所有人管理的投资组合都不可避免地面临全球经济成本不断增长的问题。这些成本，诸如保险费、税收、监管罚款、高昂的投入价格、搁浅资产、渐增的诉讼风险以及与灾害相关的实际成本等等，都将对我们的投资组合产生影响。

相反，有效地将资本配置到外部成本较低或正在减少的企业将有助于提供长期保障，如绿色技术提供商或正在从高碳密集型业务向净零排放转型的企业。我们相信，这也将有利于这些企业保持更高质量和可预测的盈利能力。而他们所支持构建的这个更具韧性的体系也将进一步促进他们自身的发展。 

那么，我们如何降低风险和把握机会？  

到2030年，气候融资需求将增长6倍（数据来源：Staff Climate Note，国际货币基金组织，2022年7月）。另外据估计，中国2060年实现“碳中和”目标至少需要人民币130万亿元。作为投资者，我们有能力从三个方面来参与并加速实现向低碳和自然受益型经济的转型：

首先，我们必须将资金投向解决方案。作为长期储蓄的管理者，我们的职责是为实体经济提供融资，并在此过程中确保资本得到有效配置，协助客户的资产保值并实现增长。 

这些资本的一部分需要继续用于推进取代化石燃料、替代高碳投入和促进高效设计的相关技术。例如，一个值得关注的增长领域是粮食系统，它约占全球排放量的15%，与我们的福祉息息相关。若要将食物浪费从33%减少到10%，需要提高效率。如果我们要减少排放，养活不断增长的全球人口，更是如此。那些致力于开发改善土壤健康技术从而提升碳捕获量并提高作物产量的公司，或者开发低排放蛋白质的公司，可以帮助我们到2050年将排放量减半，并确保全球人口保持健康。 

其次，我们必须将资金投向那些在经营上与科学的气候环境目标一致的公司。如果缺少这些目标，我们将努力与这些企业合作，确保目标的制定、衡量和报告，特别是在这些目标对企业的商业模式至关重要的情况下。

最后，我们必须要与 “落后者”积极互动和沟通。排除后进企业这样简单直接的方法并不能带来我们所需要的财务、环境或社会回报。以邻为壑绝不可取。而且，总会有其他投资者愿意承担额外的风险，以获得更大的潜在短期回报。 

多项研究表明，如果要改善企业行为，互动和参与比排斥更有效。所以我们愈发认为，在公开市场的积极参与能让我们更容易获得类似私募股权的转型溢价。

然而，全球缺乏标准化的ESG指标和企业披露，这仍是亟需解决的挑战。全球监管机构正在加快行动，着手应对ESG相关数据和指标方面存在的问题。例如欧盟可持续金融行动计划过去几年针对企业和投资者的信息披露进行了全面改革。各国也致力于在分类和标准方面加强国际接轨，例如，中国和欧盟联合发布的《可持续金融共同分类目录》。 

4.争议 

这也是我们整个集团现有在投资流程中整合ESG实践的重要基础。  

总体而言，行业目前对ESG评级的关注（ESG评级是一种平均数，往往会掩盖差异）可能在短期内受益于资金流驱动的势头，但从长远来看未必能增加价值。它们本质上是回顾性的，分散程度高，质量低。与财务指标一样，关键ESG数据和趋势的基本面分析对于识别风险和挖掘投资机会必不可少。

一些专注于ESG的非政府组织（NGO）提供了有力、优质的开源ESG数据。这些资源可以帮助我们成为更好、更有影响力的投资者。而且这种与相关NGO的合作倡议成果斐然，例如“气候行动100+”，该倡议获得了68万亿美元的资产支持，与全球167家最大的温室气体排放企业展开合作。 

聚焦亚洲，不断发展的ESG生态系统和对可持续性的日益关注得益于监管变化和投资者需求的推动。 

尤其是在中国，为了实现"双碳"目标，政府推出了有助于促进ESG披露和提升转型融资标准的政策和指导方针。与此同时，作为可再生能源技术的领导者以及在该领域最大的投资国，中国是全球能源转型的主要推动市场。这些政策和公共财政将推动持续创新和扩大规模所需的风险资本，从而为资产所有者和投资者创造新机遇。

概括而言，在实现标准化之前，可能会有障碍需要克服，差距有待缩小，但随着全球经济向更可持续和更具韧性的经济转型，我们也将获得广阔的发展机遇。

我相信，我们都有能力，也有责任专注于为下一代创造价值，因为健康运转的地球对确保经济和社会和谐有序的运转至关重要。

谢谢。

Ladies and gentlemen, it’s my honor and great pleasure to speak with you today from Geneva. I am Laurent Ramsey, Managing Partner of Pictet Group and Co-CEO of Pictet Asset Management. Thank you to the Global Asset Management Forum 2023 Annual Conference for the invitation, and for creating such an excellent platform to share insights and ideas. 

Founded in Geneva, Switzerland, Pictet has a history of 218 years. Our business focuses on asset management, wealth management, alternative investments and asset services. We established Pictet in Asia more than 40 years ago, have been investing in the China market for our international clients for almost 20 years and built our onshore presence in China in 2020. 

Sustainability is very close to the heart of Pictet. For over 200 years, taking a long-term view has been at the core of how we run and grow our businesses. Managing Partners typically have a tenure of over 20 years. As a generational firm we always consider what we will be passing on to the next generation. Not only the investments we make, but also the environment they will inherit. This is a great responsibility that we undertake personally. 

We embarked on our ESG investing journey in the 1990s and launched our first environmental thematic equities strategy, which focuses on water, in 2000. Today, we are one of the largest environmental asset managers by AUM. 

Looking to the decades that lie ahead, it is my conviction that as asset owners and managers, we have a great opportunity to think sustainably and act responsibly, and an enormous risk if we do not.

Because no economic system will be immune to the impacts of severe climate change, it presents risks that cannot be easily diversified or hedged. As universal owners, we are exposed to a representative slice of the economy and all of its sectors. Some may argue that incorporating ESG factors into decision making falls outside our fiduciary responsibility to deliver financial performance to our clients. However, I am strongly convinced that there is only upside in doing so. 

One of the core functions of the active asset management industry is price discovery. It is to identify pricing inefficiencies through data collection, filtering, and analysis to derive actionable investment decisions. It is about having the discipline to do this in a robust and repeatable way, over time, integrating relevant information with material impact on the price of financial assets. 

Our role as active managers has not changed, but rather the inputs required to deliver optimal risk-adjusted returns have. Now that we have the facts, environmental and social considerations simply cannot be ignored.

Investment portfolios that all of us manage are inevitably exposed to these growing and global economic costs. These costs will come impact portfolios as insurance premiums, taxes, regulatory fines, inflated input prices, stranded assets, increasing litigation risks, and the physical costs associated with disasters. 

Conversely, efficient allocation of capital to issuers with low or diminishing externality costs, such as providers of green technologies or issuers that are transitioning from highly carbon-intensive operations towards a net zero state, will provide protection over the long-term, and we believe, will generate better-quality and predictable profitability. They will also benefit from the more resilient system that they help support and build. 

So, how do we mitigate these risks and capture the opportunities?  

By 2030, climate finance needs to increase by 600%[ Staff Climate Note, IMF, July 2022.]. Achieving China’s goal for carbon neutrality by 2060 is estimated to require over 130 trillion yuan. As investors, we have the power to do 3 things to participate and accelerate this transition to a low carbon and nature positive economy:   

First, we must direct capital towards the solutions. As stewards of long-term savings, it is our role to finance the real economy and in doing so ensure capital is efficiently allocated to preserve and grow our clients’ assets. 

Part of this capital needs to continue to be an accelerator for technologies that displace fossil fuels, substitute high-carbon inputs and promote efficient design. For example, an exciting area for growth is the food system, which accounts for about 15% of emissions and 100% of our wellbeing. Improvements in efficiency are needed to cut food waste from 33% to 10%. Particularly, if we are to reduce emissions and feed a growing global population. Companies working on technologies to improve soil health, which in turn captures more carbon and improves crop yields - or companies developing lower-emission proteins - could help us halve emissions and ensure a healthy global population by 2050. 

Second, we must direct capital towards companies whose operations are aligned with science-based climate and environmental targets. Where those targets are absent, we commit to engaging with companies to ensure targets are set, measured and reported on, particularly as they are material to their business models. 

Last, but not least, we must engage with laggards. The easy approach of excluding “bad” players does not deliver the financial, environmental, or social return we need. It’s like throwing your waste into someone else’s garden. And, there will always be another investor willing to take on additional risk for greater potential short-term returns. 

There have been several pieces of research, demonstrating that engagement is more effective at changing corporate behavior than exclusion. We are increasingly of the view that engagement in public markets is how we can get closer to capturing private equity-like transformation premiums.

The lack of standardized ESG metrics and disclosures worldwide however continues to be a challenge. Regulation is accelerating globally as governments address some of the challenges in ESG-related data and metrics. The EU Sustainable Finance Action plan has mandated sweeping reforms which have impacted disclosures of corporates and investors over the last years. Efforts have been made for greater international alignment in taxonomy and standards, for instance the Common Ground Taxonomy jointly released by China and the EU. 

Asset managers are also required to define their ESG approaches and methodologies more specifically, they therefore are investing in proprietary tools. For example, at Pictet, we have developed a proprietary ESG scorecard providing a focused view of ESG risks and opportunities. The ESG scorecard is based on a curated set of the most material data points, across four pillars:

1.Corporate governance

2.Products & services

4.Controversies 

It is at the foundation of our existing ESG integration across the Group.  

Overall, the industry’s current focus on ESG ratings – which are averages that often obscure discriminating signals – may benefit from flow-driven momentum in the short term, but will not add value over the long run. They are inherently backward looking and suffer from high dispersion and low quality. As with financial metrics, fundamental analysis of key ESG data and trends is necessary to identify risks and unearth investment opportunities.

Focused NGOs offer some of the most compelling and open-source ESG data available today. It can help us be better, more impactful investors today. The fruits of this collaboration are even more evident in collaborative initiatives like the Climate Action100+ which has gathered backing from USD 68 trillion in assets to engage the world’s 167 largest corporate Greenhouse gas emitters. 

In Asia, the evolving ESG ecosystem and growing attention to sustainability are driven by both regulatory changes and investor demand. 

Specifically in China, to fulfill its net-zero commitment, the government has introduced policies and guidelines that will help promote ESG disclosures and benefit transition financing standards. In the meantime, as a leader in renewable energy technologies and the largest investor in this field, China is a key driver of the global energy transition. These policies and public finance will drive the risk capital needed for innovation and scaling, thereby opening up new opportunities for asset owners and investors.    

In conclusion, there may be hurdles to overcome and gaps to close before standardization is achieved, but there will also be opportunities for us all to share as the global economy transitions to a more sustainable and resilient one. 

Thank you.