Taiwan poised for economic bounceback in 2024

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The Taiwanese economy will end the year with underwhelming economic growth of around 1.2%. One of the key problems has been weak exports due to the high cost of funding globally and excess inventory in the semiconductor and electronic sectors.

The good news is that the worst should be over in 2024 as the US Federal Reserve starts easing in the second quarter of 2024. Beyond the cheaper cost of funding globally, demand for electronics and semiconductors should also improve as inventories have been reduced in 2023.  All in all, Taiwan’s growth should more than double in 2024 to 2.9%. 

Given better global financial conditions and the expectation of a better export cycle, Taiwanese companies should increase their capex in 2024. As regards foreign direct investment, China remains attractive both for green energy, especially offshore wind, but also for artificial intelligence-related projects.

However, geopolitics are becoming increasingly relevant for foreign investors when deciding whether to bet on Taiwan. In particular, the risk of military conflict in the Taiwan Strait is often discussed in the board rooms of major foreign companies considering Taiwan as an investment destination.

As regards consumption, the policy of raising wage growth to 4% for military, civil servants and public school teachers should offer some support against the background of intense outbound tourism, which takes away part of household consumption

As for inflation, it should continue to decelerate from 2.5% in 2023 to 1.6% in 2024, following global disinflationary trends. However, there are still ongoing uncertainties regarding price volatility in agricultural products and extreme weather, which may bring price spikes.

Still, such a movement should not be a hurdle for the Central Bank of the Republic of China (CBC), Taiwan’s central bank, to start cutting once the Fed does but clearly at a much slower pace since the CBC did not follow the Fed fully on its tightening.

In fact, it seems hard for the CBC to cut rates beyond 1.675% from 1.875% today. This should be positive for Taiwan’s housing market.

Given the faster cuts by the Fed than the CBC, the Taiwan dollar has the potential to appreciate against the US greenback, especially if the tech cycle rebound attracts capital into Taiwan’s stock market. 

The spoiler of this rather positive outlook for Taiwan is the geopolitical risk. The first obvious one is the presidential elections in January, but this is not the main issue.

Investors mostly worry about China’s reaction to the potential victory of the incumbent party, the Democratic Progressive Party (DPP), but the key problem is much more structural than the result of the elections and boils down to the future of Taiwan, at least from foreign investors’ point of view.

Going back to the elections, they are unlikely to result in a significant shift in economic policies in terms of the fiscal and monetary stance while derisking policies to diversify the economy away from China might not continue if the Kuomintang (KMT) were to win.

So far Taiwan’s exports to mainland China (including Hong Kong) have declined from 40% on average between 2015-2019 to 35% in 2023. Meanwhile, the US is the biggest source of Taiwan’s export orders and the share has surged from 28% to 32% for the same period. What has not yet happened sufficiently is a diversification of Taiwanese investment and trade toward Southeast Asia.

Moving forward, another key challenge for Taiwan is energy transition. Taiwan’s net zero targets by 2050 seem very hard to achieve in the current circumstances, which may also have consequences for Taiwan’s exports, especially those with large carbon emissions as the European Union pushes ahead with its carbon border adjustment mechanism (CBAM).

All in all, the Taiwanese economy should be better in 2024, both growth and inflation-wise, supported by better funding conditions. The elephant in the room, though, is geopolitical risk, especially in this election year but also structurally. A second major challenge is how to navigate Taiwan’s energy transition given its very bold targets.

Alicia Garcia Herrero is chief economist for Asia-Pacific at Natixis.

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Western Digital partners with Tenaga Nasional to integrate renewable energy within its Malaysia operations

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Company aims to achieve 100% renewal energy globally by 2030
Collaboration with TNB will help fulfil 25% of its domestic energy requirements

Western Digital has signed a collaboration with Tenaga Nasional Berhad (TNB) through its wholly-owned subsidiary, TNB Renewables Sdn. Bhd. to drive renewable energy implementation in its operations in Malaysia with the…Continue Reading

Commentary: COP28 raises questions about the future of Singapore’s fossil fuel-reliant industries

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DATA CENTRES, MARITIME AND AVIATION

Another area to keep an eye on is the information and communications technology (ICT) sector. Currently, the ICT industry is responsible for a relatively modest 8 per cent of electricity consumption in Singapore. However, ICT power use has quadrupled over the last 10 years.

According to consultancy Cushman and Wakefield, Singapore is now the largest data-centre market on a city basis in the Asia-Pacific outside China, with more than 40 data centres. Given the growth potential of this industry, it is important for data centres to adopt the latest smart cooling technologies. 

A further concern is maritime transport and aviation, business activities which Singapore is a hub for. The emissions associated with these sectors are generally not included in national estimates, because the fuels used are categorised as “international bunkers” and are not included in the Paris Agreement. This loophole has limited the pressure to address these sectors’ emissions until recently.

If the aviation industry fails to abate its emissions, it could consume more than a quarter of the world’s carbon budget for 1.5 degrees Celsius of warming by 2050. Although the aviation industry has recently agreed to reach net zero emissions by 2050, this is a voluntary agreement which risks being reneged upon if procuring enough sustainable aviation fuel or commercialising electric planes proves too challenging.  

A rigorous carbon accounting model would include all emissions attributable to Singaporeans’ air travel. It would also include the emissions due to shipping of goods they buy. Ideally, it would additionally account for the emissions due to the production of goods imported into the country.

While these indirect emissions are more challenging to estimate, they are crucial in getting the full picture of Singapore’s carbon footprint. It is time for individuals, companies and countries to take responsibility for their own actions and the environmental impacts they cause.

The transition away from fossil fuels is now official. The urgency of the climate crisis behoves all countries to take stock of and apportion responsibility for their emissions. The conclusion of COP28 is a chance for Singapore to review its climate strategy and decide where it should strengthen its efforts.

Roger Fouquet is Senior Research Fellow at Energy Studies Institute, National University of Singapore.

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Dubai a fitting host for the climate circus

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In January 2023, nearly a year before the latest United Nations climate conference began, there was deep concern and alarm over the head of one of the world’s largest oil companies being appointed president of the COP28 summit.

The climate talks taking place this month were hosted by the United Arab Emirates and overseen by Sultan Al Jaber, a man who happens to be in charge of the UAE’s national oil firm, Abu Dhabi National Oil Company. It’s a fitting illustration of an old idiom that the fox is in charge of the henhouse.

Al Jaber’s appointment was such a clear conflict of interest that a group of US lawmakers, including House Representatives Barbara Lee, Rashida Tlaib and Jamaal Bowman, and Senators Bernie Sanders and Elizabeth Warren, sent a scathing letter on January 26 denouncing it.

“Having a fossil-fuel champion in charge of the world’s most important climate negotiations would be like having the CEO of a cigarette conglomerate in charge of global tobacco policy,” the lawmakers wrote.

Their warning fell on deaf ears, and yet their fears proved to be correct months later when The Guardian newspaper published Al Jaber’s revealing remarks made at a November online climate meeting.

Mary Robinson, a climate-justice leader and former president of Ireland, rightly pointed out that the climate crisis was hurting women and children, and that Al Jaber had the power to do something about it.

The oil-company head angrily retorted that her comments were “alarmist,” and asserted, “There is no science out there, or no scenario out there, that says that the phase-out of fossil fuel is what’s going to achieve 1.5C.”

He went on to say, “Show me the roadmap for a phase-out of fossil fuel that will allow for sustainable socioeconomic development, unless you want to take the world back into caves.” Sounding defensive and cornered, Al Jaber added, “Show me the solutions. Stop the pointing of fingers. Stop it.”

Adding (fossil) fuel to the fire, the British Broadcasting Corporation published an exposé days before COP28 began revealing that “the United Arab Emirates planned to use its role as the host of UN climate talks as an opportunity to strike oil and gas deals.” UAE authorities did not deny the reports and instead responded with shocking hubris that “private meetings are private.”

Playing with words

Such shenanigans reveal the futility of relying on the UN’s annual COP meetings to phase out fossil fuels in order to stave off catastrophic climate change. Whereas earlier COP meetings fixated on the goal of “net zero emissions” – a phrase that climate activists rightly denounced as greenwashing and propaganda – the favorite phrase at this year’s COP28 appeared to be a “phase down” of fossil fuels.

The idea is that oil and gas producers may consider, someday in the far future, starting producing fewer fossil fuels than they do now. “Phase down” is a clever dilution of “phase out.” It is a sleight of hand intended to assuage concern over the warming climate all while remaining on a path to climate destruction.

The first draft of the COP28 agreement spelled out the two terms as interchangeable, referring to a “phase down/out.” Al Jaber reflected this equalization of two different words even as he sought to maintain his credentials as head of COP28, saying that he has maintained “over and over that the phase-down and the phase-out of fossil fuel is inevitable.”

That Al Jaber would engage in trickery to protect fossil fuels is hardly surprising given his role as head of the Abu Dhabi-based oil firm. In his leaked remarks to Robinson, he proclaimed that phasing out oil and gas was not feasible, “unless you want to take the world back into caves.”

But it is precisely the continued use of fossil fuels that may take us back to the stone age. We may all be living in caves someday, seeking high ground from the rising waters of the warming oceans, all while Al Jaber and his ilk are ensconced in the luxury bunkers of the wealthy.

It is an image that reflects the reality of Dubai, a gleaming, futuristic city where the Emirates pays lip service to climate progress as host of COP28, while simultaneously conspiring to secure oil and gas deals on the side. It’s a city that is defined by yet another idiom: trying to have your cake and eat it too.

Hypocrisy abounds

I know, because I was born and raised in Dubai, a child of Indians who immigrated in 1970 to a land known as the Trucial Sheikhdoms – one year before they formally emerged as a single sovereign nation called the United Arab Emirates.

My parents’ tenure in the UAE was older than the nation itself and while they toiled for more than 50 years as part of an immigrant workforce that outnumbers Emiratis 9 to 1, they were never afforded citizenship, as were none of their three children born there.

The Emirates, with the blessing of its former colonial master Britain, and its newer imperial partners, the US and Israel, has presided over an oil-funded project fueled by exploited immigrant labor to emerge as one of the most important trading hubs in the world: a seductive tourist trap dotted by massive shopping malls and billboards beneath which teeming labor camps invisibly keep the wheels of capitalism turning.

It touts a liberalism that allows women to work, drive, and even hold limited leadership, all while suppressing the rights of low-wage female domestic workers. It pledges sustainability while marketing itself to global investors.

It is hypocrisy manifested; a pretty façade of a promising future built on an age-old model of serfdom, a nation that celebrates the freedom to consume, but clamps down on the freedom to speak. In other words, it is a capitalist’s wet dream. What better place for fossil-fuel promoters to pretend they care about the future of the planet?

The COP meetings have been a disastrous distraction from the urgent need to end fossil-fuel production and consumption. Even Christiana Figueres, former executive secretary of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, who is considered the architect of the 2015 Paris climate accord, is so disgusted by the state of proceedings that she called the COP “a circus.”

Having Dubai host the largest annual international climate gathering is a desperate bid by a dying industry to maintain relevance. Energy forecasting predictions point to a grim future for petrostates like the UAE.

It’s no wonder Al Jaber has publicly tied himself into knots of contradictions. His nation’s future depends on the continued flow of oil and gas, while our world’s future depends on an immediate termination of the poisonous fuels.

This article was produced by Economy for All, a project of the Independent Media Institute, which provided it to Asia Times.

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China’s clean energy boom offers climate action hope

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With an energy-hungry economy, an historic reliance on coal and vast manufacturing enterprises, China is the world’s single largest emitter, accounting for 27% of the world’s carbon dioxide and a third of all greenhouse gas emissions.

But China is also the world’s largest manufacturer of solar panels and wind turbines. Domestically, it is installing green power at a rate the world has never seen.

This year alone, China built enough solar, wind, hydro and nuclear capacity to cover the entire electricity consumption of France. Next year, we may see something even more remarkable – the population giant’s first-ever drop in emissions from the power sector.

The COP28 climate talks began well, buoyed by November’s Sunnyland Statement between China and the United States, the second largest emitter. At previous climate talks, US-China cooperation has been lacking. But this time, they’re largely on the same page.

The statement outlined joint support for global tripling of renewable energy by 2030, tackling methane and plastic pollution, and a transition away from fossil fuels.

coal barge in middle of shanghai
Coal has fuelled China’s rapid rise. Photo: Shutterstock via The Conversation

The urgency of now

China has been looking for better coordination with the US on climate since US President Joe Biden took office. Climate is an area where these competing major powers can cooperate.

The COP28 talks in Dubai – meant to finish tomorrow (December 12) – offer a window for joint action. Next year, the US could elect a different president with very different views on climate. China’s well-regarded veteran special climate envoy, Xie Zhenhua, is about to retire.

In these talks, China – the world’s top oil importer – is looking for a compromise solution on the tense debate over fossil fuels. The world’s cartel of oil-producing countries, OPEC, has called for focusing on emissions reduction rather than fossil-fuel phase out in the declaration. Xie and his team are trying to find a middle ground to ensure a final deal.

China has long been criticized for its continuing coal-fired power plant expansion. It has the world’s largest coal power fleet, and approved another 106 gigawatts worth of new coal plants just last year – the equivalent of two a week. But the five major state-owned power companies are already burdened by heavy financial losses.

Why build dirty and clean? It’s a longstanding national policy: build sufficient baseload supply first while expanding renewable capacities. But at COP28, Xie said something new:

[China will] strive to replace fossil fuels with renewable energy in a gradual manner.

A country of engineers

In developed countries, much clean energy work is driven by energy economists, who use incentives to change behavior.

China is a country of engineers, who see these challenges as technical rather than economic.

In 2007, China released a national action plan on climate, calling for technological solutions to the climate problem. Private and state-owned companies responded strongly.

Fifteen years later, China is in the lead in every low-carbon category. Its total installed renewable capacity is staggering, accounting for a third of the world’s total, and it is leading in electric vehicle production and sales.

In the first three quarters of 2023, over 53% of China’s electricity came from low-carbon sources: hydro, wind, solar, bioenergy and nuclear.

ship building wind turbines in the sea
China has approached its record-breaking renewable roll-out methodically. Photo: Shutterstock via The Conversation

How did China boost clean energy so fast?

China’s huge domestic market and large-scale deployment of wind and solar contribute greatly to plummeting renewable costs. Steadily lowering costs means green energy becomes viable for developing countries.

In 2012, a large team from China Power Investment Corporation arrived in the high desert in Qinghai province and began building 15.7 GW worth of solar across 345 square kilometres.

It was here that China first figured out how to make intermittent power reliable. Excess power was sent to a hydropower station 40 kilometers away and used to pump water uphill. At night, the water would flow back down through the turbines.

Technologies developed here are now being used in other large-scale hybrid projects, such as hydro-solar, wind-solar and wind-solar-hydro projects.

china desert solar farm
Huge solar farms carpet the desert in Qinghai – and new work opens the door to revegetating in the shade of the panels. Photo: Shutterstock via The Conversation

In 2022, the government announced plans to install 500 GW worth of solar, onshore and offshore wind projects in the Gobi Desert across Xinjiang, Inner Mongolia, and Gansu provinces.

These are intended to not only supercharge China’s clean energy supply, but to tackle desert expansion. Solar panels stabilize the movement of sand and absorb sunlight, reducing the evaporation of scarce water and giving plants a better chance at survival. This knowledge, too, came from the Qinghai solar farms, where plants began growing in the shade.

map of china showing gobi and Taklamakan deserts
Plenty of room for solar: China’s two major deserts, the Gobi and Taklamakan, are home to more and more solar. TheDrive/Wikimedia, CC BY-ND

China’s focus on technology has given it combined solar and salt farms, floating solar power plants and energy storage ranging from batteries to compressed air to kinetic flywheels and hydrogen.

While the US and China cooperate at COP28, competition is not far away. China already dominates many clean energy technologies, but the US is trying to catch up through the massive green spend in last year’s Inflation Reduction Act.

According to the International Energy Agency, half of all emissions cuts needed to achieve net zero by 2050 will come from technologies currently at the demonstration or prototype phase. These include cheap green hydrogen, next-generation nuclear, next-generation solar and wind, and functioning carbon capture and storage for remaining fossil fuel use.

What has China achieved at COP28?

China is backing global calls to triple renewable capacity by 2030 and has agreed to tackle methane emissions, a particularly potent greenhouse gas.

China is far behind in energy efficiency – it uses about 50% more per unit of GDP than in the US, and double that of Japan. It has not invested in energy efficiency as it has in other low-carbon areas.

This could change. US and China agreed in November to restart joint energy efficiency work on industry, buildings, transportation, and equipment, seen as harder areas to cut emissions.

At COP28, we will likely see states agree to double the rate of energy efficiency improvement from 2% to 4% a year by 2030. It remains to be seen whether China will join them.

Xu Yi-chong is Professor of Governance and Public Policy, Griffith University

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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Pioneering sustainable data centres in Cyberjaya

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Emphasises the necessity of a holistic, balanced development plan for Cyberjaya
Address emission, and resource concerns as data centers integrate AI into working cultures

During Cyberview’s InnoEx, an inaugural innovation expo event held in Cyberjaya last September, Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim’s speech highlighted the city’s potential to become the preferred investment location for…Continue Reading

Europe’s rising tide of immigration hysteria

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In The Netherlands, a formerly fringe far-right party wins more seats in the Dutch general election than any other political group.

In Dublin, a knife attack outside a school triggers rioting and looting by right-wing thugs.

In the UK, the latest YouGov poll reveals rising support for the right-wing Reform Party.

The common theme in each of these recent news stories is immigration, a topic that has risen to the top of political agendas across Europe, threatening to transform liberal democracies into illiberal bastions of intolerance.

Make no mistake. This isn’t about “illegal” immigration. It is about racism, pure and simple.

For instance, it suits the UK government to make an issue out of “stopping the boats” crossing the English Channel. But the numbers involved are tiny compared with the number of migrants coming to the UK legally, to work as doctors, nurses and care-home assistants, or to study as students.

And even those students are coming under fire.

The UK is seeing a record number of people coming from overseas to study. Worth millions of pounds to universities, which charge foreign students far higher fees than their British counterparts, they contribute significantly to the nation’s gross domestic product.

Some stay on in the country after completing their course. If they do, it’s because they’ve got a job and are paying taxes to the Treasury.

Regardless, right-wing politicians are now demanding that such students should not be allowed to bring family to live with them.

Europe is walking, eyes tight shut, into a new dark age that makes a mockery of the 70-million-plus lives lost during the Second World War in the effort to rid the world of the cancerous, supremacist ideology of the Nazis.

A fundamental misunderstanding underpins Europe’s rising tide of immigration hysteria: Europe, with birth rates declining, needs immigration.

In the UK in particular, migrants form a large part of the workforce, including doctors and nurses, but also carry out many of the low-paid jobs.

But at the same time, right-wing politicians are peddling the false trope that migrants are taking “our” jobs and housing, clogging up “our” health system and – most sinister of all – “changing the shape of our country before our very eyes.”

False fears

That last incendiary quote comes from Richard Tice, a wealthy British property developer who founded the UK Brexit Party and is now the leader of its successor Reform Party, which says Britain is “broken” and “needs net zero immigration.”

The Conservative government, he said, had “totally betrayed” the British people because immigration to the UK was at a record high.

It is, but only because if it weren’t, Britain’s economy would collapse.

Regardless, traditional, more reasonable political parties across Europe are in a bind. If they ignore the rising tide of racist hysteria, they will be swept away, and so they are pandering to the mob. 

In the UK, the Conservative government is fragmenting, torn apart by the competing narratives of the beleaguered party’s few remaining centrist members of Parliament, and the extremists like the recently fired home secretary Suella Braverman, architect of the bizarre policy of dispatching boat people to Rwanda.

In The Netherlands, a four-party coalition government collapsed in July after failing to reach agreement over measures to control the flow of migrants. Into the moral vacuum stepped radical right-winger Geert Wilders, a preposterous man who rants about the “tsunami of asylum and immigration” and who has pledged to “ban” the Koran, close the country’s borders and deliver “Nexit,” a Dutch version of Brexit. 

On one level, this growing distaste for non-European foreigners is hilarious, given that it is a direct consequence of the colonialism that European states such as Britain and Holland imposed on the world for centuries.

But such truths cast no shadows on the fantasy landscapes occupied by the likes of Wilders.

The advantages of cultural diversity are obvious, and too numerous to list, and in choosing to present multiculturalism as a threat rather than an asset, right-wing politicians expose themselves for what they are ­– racists.

In Ireland last week, anti-migrant mobs gathered after an incident in which five people, including a five-year-old girl, were stabbed outside a primary school in Dublin.

In the words of the police, “hateful assumptions” that the attacker was a foreign national spread quickly, and mobs took to the streets, expressing their disdain for foreigners by, oddly, vandalizing and looting Irish shops. 

Ironically, the man who risked his own life to save the wounded victims was himself a migrant, a fast-food courier and a father of two, originally from Brazil.

Unfortunately, Europe is increasingly under the spell of those who would highlight our differences rather than our similarities, in a cynical bid to seize power.

The roots of all the disruptions in the Middle East and North Africa that have, to a significant extent, contributed to Europe’s migrant problems can be traced to European intervention in the region dating back to the First World War.

The challenge now for Europe’s moderate, mainstream politicians is to recognize and own this history, to hold the line of decency and to combat, rather than pander to, the false narratives of the extremists.

So far, however, none has appeared capable of rising to this challenge, and Europe is slipping inexorably into a moral dark age.

This article was provided by Syndication Bureau, which holds copyright.

Jonathan Gornall is a British journalist, formerly with The Times, who has lived and worked in the Middle East and is now based in the UK.

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Impact investing on the rise: BNP Paribas survey | FinanceAsia

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Impact investing is gaining in popularity across the globe, but a lack of harmonised environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, regulations and standards pose barriers to its development in Asia, a BNP Paribas survey suggested.

“Asia Pacific (Apac) is behind Europe, which has already integrated broader ESG topics such as inequalities and biodiversity. But it is ahead of North America which is highly fragmented over this topic,” Jules Bottlaender, Apac head of sustainable finance at BNP Paribas (securities services), told FinanceAsia.

So far 41% of global investors recognise a net zero commitment as their priority, while in Apac, 43% have set a due date to achieve net zero targets, according to the survey.

The global survey, titled Institutional investors’ progress on the path to sustainability, looked into how institutional investors across the globe are integrating their ESG commitments into implementation.

It gathered data from 420 global hedge funds, private capital firms, asset owners and asset managers between April and July 2023. Among them, 120 (28.6%) are from Asia Pacific (Apac) markets including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Impact investing

Impact investing, a strategy investing in companies, organisations and funds generating social and environmental benefits, in addition to financial returns, is a global trend that in the next few years, is set to overtake ESG integration as the most popular ESG strategy, the report revealed.

Globally, ESG integration dominates 70% of investors’ ESG investment strategies, but the proportion is expected to drop by 18% to 52% over the next two years. In contrast, 54% of respondents reported a plan to incorporate impact investing as their primary strategy by that time.

European investors have the greatest momentum in adopting impact investing at present, with 52% employing impact investing. While in the four markets in Apac, the proportion stood at 38%.

Negative screening took a lead as a major strategy of 62% investors surveyed in Apac. In the next two years, the figure is set to shrink to 47%, overtaken by 58% estimating to commit to impact investing.

“Impact investing is a rather new concept for most people [in Asia]. It is driven by the need to have a clear and tangible positive impact,” Bottlaender said.

An analysis from Invesco in March 2023 pointed out that while impact assessment is key to a measurable outcome of such investments, clear and consistent frameworks are required to avoid greenwashing acts.

“There is no singular standard for impact assessment,” the article noted. On the regulatory side, specific labelling or disclosure requirements dedicated to impact investing have yet to come in Asia.

Private markets, including private debt, private equity and real assets, will take up a more sizeable share of impact investing assets under management (AUM), it added.

Bottlaender echoed this view, saying that current regulatory pressure in Asia “is almost all about climate”. As a result, Asian investors’ ESG commitments are mostly around climate issues such as including net zero pledges and coal divestment. These are coming before stronger taxonomies and broader ESG regulations which are set to be finalised over the next few years.

Data shortage

A lack of ESG data is one of the greatest barriers to investors’ commitments, as respondents to the survey reported challenges from inconsistent and incomplete data. The concern is shared by 73% of respondents across Apac, slightly higher than a global average of 71%.

Bottlaender explained that although mandatory reporting of climate data is adopted in certain regulations, a majority of ESG data is submitted voluntarily.

This leads to a fragmentation and inconsistency of sources based on the various reporting standards they adhere to. Moreover, the absence of third-party verification results weighs on the accuracy and reliability of the data provided, he continued.

He shared that investors are either engaging directly with companies to encourage standardised reporting practices, or relying on data providers, or leveraging technology to carry out quality control to address the lack of ESG data.

But “significant gaps persist, especially concerning private companies and aspects like scope 3 emissions.”

“As a result, investors must be extremely cautious when advancing any ESG claim or commitment,” he warned.

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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Impact investing on the rise: BNP survey | FinanceAsia

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In: Asia, Finance, South-East Asia

Impact investing is gaining in popularity across the globe, but a lack of harmonised environmental, social and governance (ESG) data, regulations and standards pose barriers to its development in Asia, a BNP Paribas survey suggested.

“Asia Pacific (Apac) is behind Europe, which has already integrated broader ESG topics such as inequalities and biodiversity. But it is ahead of North America which is highly fragmented over this topic,” Jules Bottlaender, Apac head of sustainable finance at BNP Paribas, told FinanceAsia.

So far 41% of global investors recognise a net zero commitment as their priority, while in Apac, 43% have set a due date to achieve net zero targets, according to the survey.

The global survey, titled Institutional investors’ progress on the path to sustainability, looked into how institutional investors across the globe are integrating their ESG commitments into implementation.

It gathered data from 420 global hedge funds, private capital firms, asset owners and asset managers between April and July 2023. Among them, 120 (28.6%) are from Asia Pacific (Apac) markets including China, Hong Kong, Singapore and Australia.

Impact investing

Impact investing, a strategy investing in companies, organisations and funds generating social and environmental benefits, in addition to financial returns, is a global trend that in the next few years, is set to overtake ESG integration as the most popular ESG strategy, the report revealed.

Globally, ESG integration dominates 70% of investors’ ESG investment strategies, but the proportion is expected to drop by 18% to 52% over the next two years. In contrast, 54% of respondents reported a plan to incorporate impact investing as their primary strategy by that time.

European investors have the greatest momentum in adopting impact investing at present, with 52% employing impact investing. While in the four markets in Apac, the proportion stood at 38%.

Negative screening took a lead as a major strategy of 62% investors surveyed in Apac. In the next two years, the figure is set to shrink to 47%, overtaken by 58% estimating to commit to impact investing.

“Impact investing is a rather new concept for most people [in Asia]. It is driven by the need to have a clear and tangible positive impact,” Bottlaender said.

An analysis from Invesco in March 2023 pointed out that while impact assessment is key to a measurable outcome of such investments, clear and consistent frameworks are required to avoid greenwashing acts.

“There is no singular standard for impact assessment,” the article noted. On the regulatory side, specific labelling or disclosure requirements dedicated to impact investing have yet to come in Asia.

Private markets, including private debt, private equity and real assets, will take up more sizeable share of impact investing asset under management (AUM), it added.

Bottlaender echoed this view, saying that current regulatory pressure in Asia “is almost all about climate”. As a result, Asian investors’ ESG commitments are mostly around climate issues such as including net zero pledges and coal divestment, before stronger taxonomies and broader ESG regulations which are set to be finalised over the next few years.

Data shortage

A lack of ESG data is one of the greatest barriers to investors’ commitments, as respondents to the survey reported challenges from inconsistent and incomplete data. The concern is shared by 73% of respondents across Apac, slightly higher than a global average of 71%.

Bottlaender explained that although mandatory reporting of climate data is adopted in certain regulations, a majority of ESG data is submitted voluntarily.

This leads to a fragmentation and inconsistency of sources based on the various reporting standards they adhere to. Moreover, the absence of third-party verification results weighs on the accuracy and reliability of the data provided, he continued.

He shared that investors are either engaging directly with companies to encourage standardised reporting practices, or relying on data providers, or leveraging technology to carry out quality control to address the lack of ESG data.

But “significant gaps persist, especially concerning private companies and aspects like scope 3 emissions.”

“As a result, investors must be extremely cautious when advancing any ESG claim or commitment,” he warned.

¬ Haymarket Media Limited. All rights reserved.

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PTT sows the seeds for its future growth

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In: South-East Asia

Company plots wave of new investments

PTT sows the seeds for its future growth
Attapol Ruekpiboon, chief executive officer and president of PTT Plc, exchanges souvenirs with Rafael Camona, president of Port Authority of Seville, during a recent visit to the Spanish port. PTT is investing to develop Laem Chabang deep-sea port’s Phase 3 in Chon Buri.

PTT Plc, the national energy conglomerate, has unveiled a new phase of reinvestment aimed at establishing fresh ventures for future gains, recognising the saturation of its traditional businesses in driving growth.

Auttapol Rerkpiboon, President and Chief Executive Officer of PTT Plc, said the need for reinvestment is due to the saturation of the company’s original ventures, primarily in the oil refinery and petrochemical sectors, which have limited potential for future income growth.

Therefore, there is a need for new investments and the “sowing of seeds” for new businesses. This reinvestment process will take some time before these new ventures can bear fruit, and there is no guarantee that every seed sown will grow and yield results. However, it is hoped that a portion of the investments will yield benefits and become a new revenue wave for PTT.

In this new wave of reinvestment, PTT is focusing on investing under the theme of “Future Energy and Beyond”. Future energy investments include businesses related to electric vehicles (EVs), electric vehicle batteries and future energy sources, such as hydrogen. The “beyond” category encompasses businesses beyond energy, such as AI and robotics, lifestyle, life science, nutrition, logistics and pharmaceuticals.

According to the strategic direction of PTT, the company is targeting 30% of its net income to come from future energy. The company has set aside capital expenditure worth a billion baht for investment in future energy and beyond businesses from 2023–2027.

The company plans to lower the greenhouse gas emissions of its group by 15% from the 2020 level by 2030. PTT also aims to reach its carbon neutrality goals by 2040 with net zero emissions of greenhouse gases by 2050.

Mr Auttapol said these new businesses are expected to show substantial results within the next 3–5 years.

Some of the investments made by PTT have already started to yield good returns, such as the pharmaceutical business in Taiwan, where PTT, through its wholly-owned subsidiary Innobic, has become a major shareholder in Lotus Pharmaceutical Co. This business is generating profits worth more than a billion baht for PTT, primarily due to the production and sale of cancer medications in the United States.

Mr Auttapol said PTT’s reinvestment strategy is purposeful. Every investment made by PTT is seen as a way to create a new S-Curve for the country, generating employment opportunities and fostering new technologies.

While the government has policies regarding new S-Curve industries, it is crucial for the private sector to drive and materialise these initiatives, he said.

Thailand’s traditional heavy industry, petrochemicals, which once brought prosperity to the nation, cannot be the sole focus any more. New industries and technologies must be developed, he said.

Mr Auttapol also mentioned PTT’s support for the research and development of “Manee Daeng”, an innovative anti-ageing drug, in collaboration with medical professionals from Chulalongkorn University. The drug has shown promising results in animal trials and is preparing to undergo human trials both within and outside of Thailand.

Despite reinvestment in new businesses, the CEO highlighted PTT’s strong commitment to ensuring the country’s energy security from the very beginning. For instance, he said, during the start of the Russia-Ukraine crisis, PTT promptly purchased and stored 4 million barrels of oil when the price per barrel was more than US$100 (3,638 baht). This strategic decision was made to secure the country’s energy supply and bolster consumer confidence even though it led to losses when prices dropped.

In addition to oil reserves, PTT has initiatives to support the public during energy price crises, such as fixing prices for natural gas vehicles and liquefied petroleum gas, and extending loans to the Electricity Generating Authority of Thailand to stabilise electricity costs.

However, Mr Auttapol acknowledged that while PTT operates as a state enterprise, it is a listed company and part of the capital market. Consequently, PTT must strike a delicate balance between fulfilling its role as a state enterprise and upholding its efficiency as a listed company. “We are cautious not to subsidise energy prices to a degree that could jeopardise our financial stability or affect our credit rating. We must approach these matters with great care,” he said.

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