Reading time: 2 minutes
Last week I read an interesting piece by someone who clearly is not a fan of thematic investing.
He demonstrated the dangers of jumping on the ‘next big thing’, pointing out, for example, the risks faced by early investors in the automobile industry.

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Climate change is a global megatrend
Megatrends are powerful forces that can transform the trajectory of the global economy. They can have a meaningful impact not just on how we live and how we spend money, but also on corporate strategies and government policies.

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Eurasia Group (a world leader in political risk analysis), published their Top Risks of 2021 report on 4 January.
In their view, 2021 will overwhelmingly be about economic responses to Covid-19’s lingering effects (debt burdens and misaligned politics), even as vaccines are rolled out and the actual healthcare emergency fades.

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ESG (environmental, social and governance) considerations have been increasing in importance for investors in recent years and have been brought further into focus during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. Since the start of the pandemic, the knock-on effects of lockdown, including restricted movements of people and shutdown of industrial activity,

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Reading time: 3 minutes
The devastation of the Australian bushfires brought the very real effects of climate change to the forefront of investors’ minds. Now more than ever, many investors are looking to put their dollars to work towards a sustainable future.
Many investors will be aware of our three equity-focused ethical equities ETFs: the Australian Sustainability Leaders ETF (ASX: FAIR),

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Reading time: 5 mins
Late last week, German payments giant Wirecard filed for insolvency, owing creditors almost $5.8 billion. The company’s collapse came a week after its auditor, Ernst and Young (EY), found a massive $3.1 billion hole in its books. EY refused to sign off on the company’s 2019 accounts,

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Reading time: 5 mins
One of the few silver linings to the COVID-19 cloud is the benefit to the environment as a byproduct of shutting down the global economy – although many believe that this benefit is likely to be reversed once the crisis is over.
Separately,

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Last month, close to 300,000 Australians gathered at climate change rallies around the country in one of the largest protest events in the nation’s history. Millions turned out in similar rallies in 150 countries around the world. Many of the attendees were school students, some as young as 8 years old,

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Responsible investing is on the rise. According to the Responsible Investment Benchmark Report 2018 Australia, more than half of all professionally managed assets in Australia fall under a responsible investment umbrella.
In years gone by, conventional wisdom was that acting in accordance with ethical principles involved a trade-off against portfolio returns.

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Last week Donald Trump announced that the United States will withdraw from the 2015 Paris Climate Accord, much to the delight of climate change deniers and despite wide condemnation from the rest of the world. Clearly, Trump Digs Coal. He also loves Oil.
Earlier this year we announced the launch of the BetaShares Global Sustainability Leaders ETF (ASX: ETHI).

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