Fund managers turn to lawyers for ESG failures

Lawyers advising investors say a case doesn’t need to prevail in the courts for the strategy to be declared a success. — Bloomberg

London: Investment managers are losing patience with corporate foot-dragging on key environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics, and are starting to see legal action as the logical next step, according to the head of Britain’s biggest sustainable finance association.

“Investors are frustrated at the pace of progress in many of the larger corporates, for example fossil fuel companies,” James Alexander, chief executive of the UK Sustainable Investment and Finance Association (UKSIF), said in an interview. “There is a real appetite for using litigation.”