Mr. John Plender, Senior Editorial Columnist of The Financial Times, was invited to speak about ESG investment to Keizai Koho Center member corporations.

Mr. Plender pointed out that ESG assets have grown over 90% since 2015 and ESG investment has been growing at an astonishing pace with net flows more than doubling to 371 billion US dollars worldwide in 2020. He explained that the widespread assumption that economic and social consequences of externalities, such as environmental costs, can be regulated by law and regulation is flawed, because law and regulations can be subject to corporate lobbying and corporate financing of politicians. ESG importance is precisely that investors can remedy the political vacuum to a degree through their influence on the market value and strategies of corporations.