• Global sustainable investment in five major markets—Europe, US, Canada, Australasia and Japan—grew by 15% in 2018-20 and reached US$35.3trn at the beginning of 2020, according to a biennial report released by Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA), a network of sustainable investment representative organisations, in July. The pace of growth slowed in 2018-2020 from the 34.3% reported in the previous period (2016-18). The Economist Intelligence Unit expects this trend to continue as the criteria for classifying sustainable investment is tightened to deter greenwashing.

• In 2020 the US, with US$17.1trn in sustainable investment, overtook Europe (US$12trn), according to the report. Excluding Europe, all the markets registered an increase in sustainable investment in the past two years. Canada noted the biggest jump, by 48%, as compared with the previous period, followed by the US at 42%. Meanwhile, sustainable investment in Europe declined by about 13% in 2018-20, largely owing to a change in methodology for calculating green investment.

• The proportion of sustainable investments to the total asset under management stood at 35.9% in 2018-20, as compared with 33.4% in 2016-18. At 61.8%, Canada had the highest share of sustainable investments, while Japan had the lowest (24.3%) in 2020.

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