61% of corporates targeting net zero by 2030

A Westpac survey has revealed that nearly two thirds of corporates are targeting net zero by 2030.

Nearly a quarter (24 per cent) are aiming for 2040, and a smaller proportion are targeting 2050. The report, Financing for sustainability: Asia Pacific’s evolving ESG market, was produced by Economist Impact for Westpac and provides insights from 150 investor executives across Asia Pacific and 150 executives from large global companies based in Europe, the US or Asia Pacific.

The survey also shows that in the Asia Pacific region 85 per cent of corporates surveyed are actively pursuing decarbonisation while 91 per cent of investors are decarbonising their portfolios.

Anthony Miller, Chief Executive Westpac Institutional Bank, says, “The majority of investors and issuers in the region are taking climate matters into their own hands and are actively pursuing the decarbonisation of their businesses and portfolios. In fact, almost half (46 per cent) of investors surveyed expect to have over 50 per cent of their AUM allocated to sustainable investment by 2025. On the issuer side, just 18 per cent of companies surveyed in 2019 had issued or utilised sustainable financing in the Asia Pacific market. Today that figure has grown to well over half (56 per cent) and evolved to an increasingly broad range of debt and equity tools being issued, as companies move beyond green bonds.”