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The writer is a portfolio manager and chair of sustainable investing at Brown Advisory
本文作者是布朗諮詢公司(Brown Advisory)的投資組合經理和可持續投資負責人
COP26 is under way, generating debates around the investor role in tackling climate change. Many are focused on ferreting out virtue-signalling imposters among asset managers on environmental, social and governance issues.
COP26會議正在進行中，關於投資者在應對氣候變化中的作用產生了討論。許多人專注於找出資產管理公司在環境、社會和治理問題上的美德冒名頂替者。
This is important, but a bit distracting at a time when our existential dependence on a stable climate must be matched with climate solutions at scale. This requires capital and the asset management industry is in a privileged position to bring that capital along.
這很重要，但在當下有點分散注意力，目前我們對穩定氣候的生存依賴必須與大規模的氣候解決方案相匹配。這需要資本，而資產管理行業處於一個特殊的位置，可以帶來這些資本。
We can start as an industry by acknowledging the urgency. Even if we stop burning fossil fuels, global warming will cause disruption that we can adjust to only if we preserve and restore our planet’s richest natural carbon sinks (tropical and old growth forests, peat lands, etc).
作爲一個行業，我們可以從承認緊迫性開始。即使我們停止燃燒化石燃料，全球變暖也會造成破壞，只有當我們保護和恢復我們星球上最豐富的天然碳匯（熱帶和古老的森林，泥炭地等），我們才能適應。
Government and non-profit funding does not come close to supporting the $4tn per year the International Energy Agency estimates will be needed by 2030 to keep global emissions in check. Without new financing, natural resources may become too scarce and too expensive to support many business models.
國際能源署(International Energy Agency)估計，到2030年，控制全球排放需要每年4兆美元，而政府和非營利機構的資助遠遠達不到這一水準。如果沒有新的融資，自然資源可能會變得過於稀缺和昂貴，無法支援許多商業模式。
The world of investing and the lexicon of nature, conservation and competition have typically clashed. However, climate change requires us to align capital with solutions to tackle it.
投資界與自然、保護和競爭的辭彙經常發生衝突。然而，氣候變化要求我們將資本與解決方案結合起來。
Security analysis is not indifferent to nature. Consider a company’s cost of goods sold: building materials, food and beverages, semiconductors, reagents for recent vaccine innovations. Peel back a layer and we are talking the language of nature: trees, palm oil, coffee, gold, copper, biodiversity. It has been estimated that more than half of the world’s gross domestic product — $44tn of economic value — is at moderate or severe risk due to nature loss.
證券分析並非對自然無動於衷。考慮一下一個公司的銷售成本：建築材料、食品和飲料、半導體、最近疫苗創新的試劑。而剝掉其外皮，我們談論的是大自然的語言：樹木、棕櫚油、咖啡、黃金、銅、生物多樣性。據估計，由於 自然損失，全球逾一半的國內生產總值(gdp)——44兆美元的經濟價值——面臨中度或嚴重風險。
Take-and-deplete is the assumption of traditional financial models. Today, it is more practical for investors to understand the risks to our “natural capital”.
收穫和耗盡是傳統金融模式的假設。今天，對於投資者來說，瞭解我們的「自然資本」所面臨的風險更爲實際。
An emerging success story is how increased investor scrutiny of palm oil production has decoupled some supply chains from environmentally-destructive sourcing practices. The majority of suppliers and purchasers now pledge zero deforestation. According to the World Resources Institute, 2020 is the fourth straight year that palm oil deforestation has been trending down. It’s a win for investors and businesses as well. The conservation group WWF reports that many sector companies benefited significantly through price premiums for sustainable sourcing.
一個正在出現的成功案例是，投資者對棕櫚油生產的監督加強，使一些供應鏈與破壞環境的採購行爲脫鉤。大多數供應商和採購商現在都承諾零砍伐森林。根據世界資源研究所的數據，2020年是棕櫚油砍伐量連續第四年呈下降趨勢。這對投資者和企業來說也是一個勝利。環保組織世界自然基金會(WWF)報告稱，許多行業公司從可持續採購的價格溢價中獲益良多。
Companies will find it easier to compete and differentiate themselves once they collaborate on some new ground rules to refocus them on longer-term interests.
企業會發現，一旦它們在一些新的基本規則上展開合作，重新將重點放在長期利益上，它們將更容易競爭和差異化。
For example, under the UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate, more than 200 companies participate in collaborative efforts with civil society, intergovernmental organisations and affected communities to advance water sustainability.
例如，根據聯合國全球契約首席執行長水任務(UN Global Compact CEO Water Mandate)，200多家公司參與了與民間社會、政府間組織和受影響社區的合作努力，以促進水的可持續性。
No company can survive without water and it’s estimated that half of the world’s population will reside in water-stressed areas by 2025. Investors should increasingly take note of the businesses sharing the burden of investing in water security and other natural resources to protect their bottom lines. These are the companies better prepared for a day when new rules, price signals, scarcity or reputational risks incentivise replenishment, rather than depletion of resources.
沒有一家公司能在沒有水的情況下生存，據估計，到2025年，世界上一半的人口將居住在缺水地區。投資者應該越來越多地注意到，有些企業爲了保護自己的底線，分擔了對水安全和其他自然資源的投資負擔。這些公司爲新規則、價格信號、稀缺性或聲譽風險激勵補充資源而不是耗盡資源的那一天做了更好的準備。
New collaborative financial structures have emerged that unlock climate solutions and strong risk-adjusted returns. “Blended finance”, for example, takes development finance and improves a project’s risk/return profile through co-investments, technical assistance, incentives or guarantees.
新的合作金融結構已經出現，爲解決氣候問題提供瞭解決方案，並帶來了經過風險調整後的豐厚回報。例如，「混合融資」採用開發融資，透過共同投資、技術援助、激勵或擔保來改善項目的風險/回報狀況。
In Nigeria, for example, public money from the World Bank’s Nigeria Electrification Project plus philanthropic dollars from the Rockefeller Foundation provided support for structuring a private investment from CrossBoundary Group, a partner of Brown Advisory. This financed solar mini-grids that will provide clean electricity to 55,000 rural homes. Early results show strong internal rates of return in the mid-teens.
例如，在奈及利亞，世界銀行奈及利亞電氣化項目的公共資金加上洛克菲勒基金會(Rockefeller Foundation)的慈善資金，爲布朗諮詢公司的合作伙伴跨界集團(cross - boundary Group)組織一項私人投資提供了支援。該項目資助了太陽能微型電網，將爲5.5萬戶農村家庭提供清潔電力。早期的研究結果顯示，青少年的內部回報率很高。
While blended finance projects are designed to create environmental or social impact, there’s a lot for financial investors to like as well, such as an inflation hedge and exposure to returns that are uncorrelated with public equities and bonds.
雖然混合金融項目的設計初衷是產生環境或社會影響，但它也有很多讓金融投資者喜歡的地方，比如對沖通膨風險，以及與公開股票和債券無關的回報敞口。
Investors can further be enticed by using our own jargon: the promise of an asymmetric upside, because most natural resources outside fossil fuels will be more valuable tomorrow than they are today. If asset managers signal a willingness to learn, participate and bring other stakeholders along, the opportunity is an asymmetric upside for us all.
投資者可以透過使用我們自己的行話來進一步吸引：非對稱上升的承諾，因爲化石燃料以外的大多數自然資源明天會比今天更有價值。如果資產管理人表示願意學習、參與並帶動其他利益相關者，那麼這個機會對我們所有人來說都是一個不對稱的上升空間。
