On October 11, the Valdai Club, in partnership with Istituto Affari Internazionali (IAI), held a T20 associated online roundtable “The G20 role towards an internationally recognized ESG framework” as part of T20 Italian Presidency.
The ESG (environment, social, governance) criteria are becoming mainstream in the global investment landscape in the aftermath of the pandemic shock. The largest corporates are starting to compete in the ESG space, with a rising importance attached to corporate ESG ratings, which may soon become as important as financial ratings are today.
The G20 should promote a harmonized and transparent development of ESG standards, in order to reconcile developed and developing countries interests, support investors and companies’ decisions, and eventually ensure the expected positive impact of ESG policies on societal and environmental issues.
How to coordinate the implementation of ESG principles across countries with different levels of preparedness for green transformation? How to manage the differences and avoid the emergence of new dividing lines? What could be the role of the Italian G20 Presidency? These and other issues were addressed during the roundtable, preceded by welcome remarks from Andrey Bystritskiy, Chairman of the Board of the Foundation for Development and Support of the Valdai Discussion Club, and Ettore Greco, Executive Vice President of the IAI.
Speakers
Agostino Inguscio, Senior Expert in the G7/G20 Sherpa Office, Italy Presidency of Council of Ministers
Claude Lopez, Head of Research Department, Milken Institute
Mariano Machado, Councillor member, Argentine Council for International Relations (CARI)
Akshay Mathur, Director of ORF Mumbai and Head of the Geoeconomics Studies Programme
Dmitry Pristanskov, State Secretary, Vice President and Head of GR at Nornickel
Anton Tsvetov, Deputy Director, Department of Multilateral Economic Cooperation and Special Projects, Ministry of Economic Development of the Russian Federation
Moderator
Yaroslav Lissovolik, Programme Director, Valdai Discussion Club.