Swiss people who want to invest their money in sustainable development are currently spoiled for choice. In fact, there are no less than 2,325 “green” funds at their disposal, notes a study by the Lucerne University of Applied Sciences relayed Monday by the NZZ. But above all, this study reveals that demand is now stagnating. For the first time, the inflow of money is even slightly lower than that of conventional funds.
“After tumultuous growth, we could expect a certain calming of the market,” explains study author Brian Mattmann. If these sustainable investments were able to attract a huge amount of 550 billion francs between 2018 and 2023, new capital has been reduced to a meager 23 billion francs over the last twelve months.
According to him, “the stagnation of interest particularly concerns thematic funds focused on the environment, climate or energy”. Some of these funds appeared with the ambitious promise that they could improve the environment, which is not proven,” he explains.
In addition, since the start of 2022, the performance of sustainability indices has been lower than that of the overall market,” he emphasizes. At issue: the war in Ukraine. Shares in the fossil fuel and arms sectors recorded strong price increases. “Before, especially after the Covid pandemic, sustainability strategies achieved better results. They benefited from the boom in the technology sector, over-represented in many of these funds,” underlines Brian Mattmann. But in the long term, these fluctuations should balance out, according to him.
While many small banks still rely heavily on sustainable funds, others have slowed down. Like the Valiant bank which only invests 3% of its new funds in this sector. She explained to the NZZ that her “classic” investment solutions met a minimum of ESG (Environmental, Social and Governance) criteria in any case.
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