Sovereign Sustainability Circle 2022 Event Highlights

Investment Outlook 31 Mar 2022 5 min read

The United Nations COP26 (UN)? climate talks held in Glasgow in November 2021 resulted in important progress in the goals of setting stronger 2030 emissions reduction targets and strengthening the collective commitment to curb methane emissions, to halt and reverse forest loss, and align the finance sector with net-zero by 2050. But since then, the unprecedented and tragic geopolitical events surrounding Ukraine, have shocked the world and raised the question of whether this will interrupt or perhaps accelerate the sustainability agenda.

Speakers

Axel A. Weber

Chairman of the Board of Directors
UBS Group AG

Dr. Sabine Mauderer

Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Vice-Chair NGFS and Chair of workstream “Scaling up green finance”

Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva

Deputy General Manager of the BIS

Massimiliano Castelli

Head of Strategy, Global Sovereign Markets, UBS Asset Management

Michele Gambera

Co-Head of Strategic Asset Allocation Modelling
UBS Asset Management

Lucy Thomas

Head of Sustainable Investing and Impact
UBS Asset Management

Eveline Maechler

Sustainable Investment Specialist
UBS Asset Management

Session 1

The post-Glasgow sustainability agenda and the impact of the Ukraine-Russia conflict

Panel:
Axel A. Weber
Chairman of the Board of Directors, UBS Group AG

Dr. Sabine Mauderer
Member of the Executive Board of the Deutsche Bundesbank, Vice-Chair NGFS and Chair of workstream “Scaling up green finance”

Luiz Awazu Pereira da Silva
Deputy General Manager of the BIS

Massimiliano Castelli
Head of Strategy, GSM, UBS AM (Moderator)

The first panel began by looking at two emerging questions: Will the tension between the West and Russia effect energy prices in a fundamental and long term way? Second, will the rise in fossil fuel prices discourage investors from embracing the alternative energy revolution, or will it be an opportunity to accelerate the movement away from the global economy’s dependence on fossil fuel?

The discussion also covered the role of carbon pricing schemes to help transition economies to more sustainable power sources and the role of corporate activism in keeping the sustainability agenda on track.

Session 2

FROM TRADITIONAL TO ESG BENCHMARKS POST-GLASGOW

Panel
Asset Allocation for an ESG World
Michele Gambera
Co-Head of Strategic Asset Allocation Modelling, UBS Asset Management

Fireside chat with the UBS Head of Sustainability Research Management
Lucy Thomas
Head of Sustainable Investing and Impact, UBS Asset Management


FROM TRADITIONAL TO ESG BENCHMARKS POST-GLASGOW
Eveline Maechler
Sustainable Investment Specialist, UBS Asset Management

Massimiliano Castelli
Head of Strategy, GSM, UBS AM (Moderator)

In this session, three UBS experts in different aspects of sustainable investing discuss the most important factors in building sustainable portfolios that meet investor needs. The conversation begins by looking at a complex issue that is very often neglected in conversations about sustainable investing: the impact of ESG integration on strategic asset allocation. This question has been answered by a recent paper by Michele Gambera, Co-Head of Strategic Asset Allocation Modeling with our Investment Solutions group.

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