2024 was a big year for the MSCI Sustainability Institute. We continued to bridge the gap between theory, practice and policy through data and analysis that help decision-makers in finance, academia, business and government drive sustainable value.
We expanded our partnerships, collaborated on research that illuminated emerging opportunities and risks for investors, and built an influential academic and policymaker audience. And if you’ve joined us in person for one of our events, you’ll know that we’ve placed lively debates at the heart of our strategy. Thank you, to our fellows, our advisors, and our collaborators.
2025 will bring exciting new opportunities, but we’d like to take a moment to share some highlights of our impact in 2024. Wishing you a joyful holiday season and an impactful New Year!
Research
What the Market Thinks: A Climate Risk Survey. The world’s investors agree that the risks of severe weather events will escalate and that global action to date is insufficient to stave off the costliest warming, according to our survey of more than 350 finance, policy, and academic experts to develop a market-aligned climate scenario. A companion guide that we co-authored with the United Nations Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative aims to help finance practitioners use climate scenarios, which are a critical tool for quantifying the impact of a warming world on investments.
An Investor’s Guide to Antimicrobial Resistance. With antimicrobial resistance (AMR) potentially adding USD 1 trillion in healthcare expenses and reducing global growth by 4% annually by 2050, we created an investor guide in collaboration with the FAIRR Initiative and Access to Medicine Foundation. We also convened key leaders from finance, business and healthcare to explore how investors can address the risks and opportunities AMR presents.
The Net-Zero Tracker. Our report this year illuminated corporate progress to curb climate risk from a series of angles, ranging from the role of carbon trading in addressing climate ambition to the trajectory of companies’ emissions across countries.
Investors, policymakers, academics and representatives of civil society share insights into unlocking private investment for the energy transition in developing countries, at a forum in the COP29 Blue Zone hosted by the Institute on Nov. 12, 2024.
How to make climate adaptation and resilience investable. Adaptation and resilience is emerging as a theme for growth-minded investors, who understand the inevitable demand for innovative resilience-oriented products and services that a changing climate creates. We teamed with the investor-led Global Adaptation and Resilience Working Group (with support from the Bezos Earth Fund and ClimateWorks Foundation) to identify a set of adaptation and resilience companies that investors might care about.
Canada’s boreal forest and a call to action for investors. We detailed the impact of companies identified in a report by consulting firm Canbury Insights on the environment and communities that surround Canada’s boreal forest.
Education
Through our Climate Data Knowledge Program, we provide investment-grade data and metrics from MSCI ESG Research to over 300 researchers at 30 leading academic institutions to support independent research that can inform investment practice.
We provided policymakers across the U.S., European Union, and APAC with research-driven insights on critical topics such as biodiversity, transition finance, and disclosure trends.
The Institute’s inaugural cohort of Climate Scholars present findings from their research at MSCI’s offices in Zurich, October 2024.
In collaboration with MSCI’s Climate Risk Center, our first cohort of Climate Scholars explored the potential of artificial intelligence in evaluating company spending as a proxy for climate readiness.
We teamed with the academic publishing network SSRN to launch a Climate Finance eJournal that showcases the latest academic work on the application of financial economics to climate change.
Events
Unlocking private capital for climate action in developing countries. We convened more than 120 investors, policymakers and development finance experts in the COP29 Blue Zone in Baku, Azerbaijan to address the challenges of mobilizing private climate investment in developing countries.
Reality checking sustainable finance. More than 100 industry leaders delved into the implications of differences among ESG ratings, explored the role of diversity in value creation, and tackled misconceptions about the performance and impact of sustainable investing.
Leaders from finance, academia and business untangle the latest data on sustainability and performance at a forum hosted by the Institute on June 4, 2024.
Policy meets practice series. We convened leaders from finance, government and NGOs at exclusive roundtables throughout the year, to hear different perspectives on key topics such as challenges to financing the energy transition.
“Theory Meet Practice,” our video series about academic research into sustainable finance and the lessons investors can take from it, explored critical questions – like how to navigate climate transition risks, with Marcin Kacpercyzk; embrace systems-level thinking, with Caroline Flammer; approach sustainability with rationality, with Alex Edmans; read corporate sustainability news with Aaron Yoon; and make sense of sustainability ratings, with Roberto Rigobon.
Haven’t caught up yet? Now’s the perfect time to check out these insights, which can inform your strategy in 2025 and beyond.