"I just can remember one such structural change, that was really fundamental for the real economy and financial markets, and this was the fall of the Iron Curtain in 1989. Things changed dramatically for central Eastern Europe, with markets opening up and new market structures being established. Sustainability or ESG is somewhat comparable to that because it is reshaping not only the financial industry, but also the real economy from the bottom off its functioning," he has further explained.
In this episode Dieter talked to Daniela Ghetu, Editorial Director of the XPRIMM Publications, about the main concepts embedded in the ESG term, the implications of the current energy crisis on the European long-term plan of reaching climate neutrality until 2050, the social implications under the ESG goals, the implications of introducing ESG risks in the prudential framework of insurers and pension funds, as mentioned by the EIOPA's declared key areas of activity for 2022-2024 etc.
As many concepts are still not fully defined, while the implementation of others is rather challenging, ESG needs to be well understood by people, so that it can gain their full support. And, as Dieter explained, while the whole sustainability issue is a very good one, benefitting to people and the planet, "the way it was put into the law is, unfortunately, much too academic and we might lose the people out with that. It should be simplified. It should be made accessible for more people, to be well understood and also supported. I am afraid if we continue like this, with all this complexity, we will lose more, more people and this would be very unfortunate."
However, no matter what the current challenges and imperfections, ESG is here to remain and needs to be fully embedded in insurers' activity. Dieter Pscheidl concluded: "ESG is the change, it is something that is at the core of our business. Some things we already doing since a very long time, some other things will be added, but it's not something that is foreign to us. ESG should be on everybody's desk and this is also the expectation from our supervisors that everybody in an insurance company should deal with ESG: it should be the underwriters, the Asset Managers, the colleagues from compliance, our colleagues from HR when it comes to workforce related matters, it should be on the table of our distribution colleagues and so on and so forth. So, it's something that really addresses each and everybody in an insurance undertaking and also it is certainly an opportunity that we can also expand our business".
In the following two episodes, that will air starting 8 and 15 December, Petra Ringler, Teamleader ESG, VIG and Dieter Pscheidl, Head of European Affairs and ESG will talk to XPRIMM about insurer's contribution to ESG and VIG's vision and initiatives to fulfill the social goals in ESG through actively supporting affordable housing.
1761 views
