According to Morningstar's latest report, global sustainable fund flows rebounded in the fourth quarter of 2022, mainly driven by investor enthusiasm in Europe. What trends could influence the landscape for sustainability investing in the coming year? Morningstar's Hortense Bioy shares insights from the report.

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If you're new to the sustainability sphere, navigating the various metrics and methodologies in existence can be incredibly confusing. A new book looks to demystify the standards in play and discusses the trends driving the ESG conversation. We speak to Dr. Renard Siew, the author of the "Sustainability Analytics Toolkit for Practitioners" on key themes in this space.

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The year 2022 wasn’t smooth sailing for proponents of ESG. The energy crisis stemming from the war in Ukraine underscored global dependence on fossil fuels for the medium term, while allegations of greenwashing by big brands also created public backlash towards ESG labels. Will 2023 be another year of reckoning for ESG? We discuss ESG themes and trends with Tan Zhai Yun, the Editor for ESG at The Edge Malaysia.

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The palm oil industry is embracing ESG via various certifications such as The Indonesian Sustainable  Palm Oil Standard (ISPO), Malaysian Palm Oil Standard (MPSO) and Roundtable on Sustainable Palm Oil (RPSO). In spite of this, there are still a slew of accusations hurled against the sector. Can the industry shake this off and evolve to be a more sustainable industry? We speak to Khor Yu Leng, Principal at Segi Enam Advisors for answers.

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The hard truth is global emissions are still growing. Countries that piously signed the Paris agreement have not cut their emissions enough to meet its targets. At COP27, negotiators also failed to reach a deal on greater cuts to greenhouse gas emissions. Is carbon tax the answer? We discuss this with Yin Shao Loong, Senior Research Associate at Khazanah Research Institute.

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KPMG’s biennial Survey of Sustainability Reporting 2022 provides analysis of the sustainability and Environment, Social and Governance (ESG) reports from 5,800 companies across 58 countries and jurisdictions including Malaysia. Is it an adequate benchmark of a company's ESG reporting and disclosure? Or are there still gaps that make consistent, comparable and reliable sustainability disclosure distorted? For insights, we speak to Phang Oy Cheng, KPMG's Head of Sustainability Advisory.

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With so much emphasis on the E and S in ESG, is governance taking a backseat in corporate Malaysia? The Securities Commission Malaysia (SC) has continued to be progressive with its issuance of the fifth iteration of the Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance. But, can more be done to ensure better governance in Malaysia? We discuss this with Michele Kythe Lim, President & CEO of Institute of Corporate Directors Malaysia (ICDM).

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Feeling the pinch of rising inflation? Want to make some extra cash and yet play your role for the environment? FatHopes Energy is a home grown Malaysian company that enables customers to recycle their used cooking oil. It has also grown by leaps and bounds and is now developing sustainable fats, oils and grease solutions for advanced biofuel production. We discuss its future prospects with Vinesh Sinha, its CEO & Founder.

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Malaysia will be launching the long-awaited Voluntary Carbon Market (VCM) Exchange on December 9. The country is still at an early stage of its sustainable journey to achieve net zero carbon by 2050, at the earliest. Will the introduction of the VCM help drive the nation's environmental change and sustainable goals? We speak to Arina Kok, Partner, Ernst and Young Malaysia Climate Change and Sustainability Services for more insights.

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Cop 27 brought together heads of states and governments from 190 countries. The United Nations said recently that there is “no credible pathway” in place to cap global heating at 1.5 degrees Celsius. But the key positive at COP27 was the hot issue of 'loss and damage' payments and it received conditional approval. We speak to Dr. Ali Izadi, Head of Asia-Pacific, Bloomberg New Energy Finance on whether there were more successes than failures at this event.

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