How ESG’s Reckoning May Eventually Pay Dividends: Green Insight

A lot has been written lately about how ESG is in crisis. At best, critics see the embattled investment strategy at a critical crossroads; at worst, they judge the inexorable primacy of Wall Street greed over species survival as having doomed it from the start.

Roughly $2.7 trillion sits in funds that claim to focus on financial risks tied to the environment, social issues and corporate governance. While investors were already skeptical given all the spectacular examples of marketing sleight-of-hand and brazen greenwashing, this year’s bear market has induced more scrutiny of one of ESG’s financial promises, namely that it helps limit losses in downturns.

Regulators are circling, investors ...