Category: Central banks
Have international investors taken the first steps towards a new kind of sovereign engagement? Have international investors taken the first steps towards a new kind of sovereign engagement? Have international investors taken the first steps towards a new kind of sovereign engagement?
Jul 14th, 2020
It started last month as a highly unusual act of engagement: an investor letter writing campaign to Brazilian embassies calling for an end to deforestation.
It quickly snowballed into a meeting between an investor coalition, representing over $4.6trn, with the government and the Central Bank of Brazil - which resulted in a commitment to tackle the issue. This has the potential to be a significant success and a blueprint for further sovereign engagement. However, challenges lay ahead, most notably: how do investors stop this disappearing into thin air?
Leading the public policy dialogue is Norway’s Storebrand. Jan Erik Saugestad, CEO of Storebrand Asset Management, told RI: “Not only did we reach out to corporates on this initiative, we actually approached the government. When you have these three forces of investors, corporations, and governments feeding on each other, or moving in the same direction, you get something done.”
Thus far, the…