Impact Investors in next generation carbon-free energy technologies | Building a Solar Civilisation | The Sun provides unlimited clean energy that is not defined by the scarcity of the resource but by the "quality" of the technology we use to harness its incredible energy that could power the world 1300X times over every year.
Elion House, Tatsuo Masuda, presents on the economic and financial impact of COVID- 19. He is a Panel Member, World Federation of Scientists and Strategic Committee Member, Elion House.
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sustainable investment in environmental technologies for a green and
resilient recovery. There are clear connections between COVID-19 and the climate crisis.
Climate change increases the likelihood of COVID-type pandemics – through
changes in the habitats of disease vectors, for example, increased
inter-species contact resulting from deforestation.
The
World Bank estimates that 40-60
million people will be driven into extreme poverty in 2020. Similarly, climate
change will generate events that escalate and proliferate, from multiple
breadbasket failures to climate-induced conflicts and refugee crises. COVID-19
is in many ways unprecedented, but climate change threatens to produce shocks
of greater magnitude that play out over longer timeframes IPCC special
report, Global Warming of 1.5°C, 2018
Elion House CTO/CIO, Benjamin Khoo, made a keynote speech on the impact of climate-related risks and intensifying regulations on global investment portfolios.
The 3 day conference in Hong Kong was attended by global banks, investors, corporates and regulators. Climate change was voted by attendees as one of the top 3 major risks facing organisations alongside cyber attacks and geo-politics.
CTO/ CIO, Benjamin Khoo, moderates a panel of institutional investors including Swiss Re, Peak Re, and IFC’s Asia Chief Investment Officer who estimates clean energy to be a $20 trillion opportunity.
The panel highlighted a global trend by institutional investors who control around $90 trillion to decarbonise their portfolios away from fossil fuel investments into sustainable investments that meet environmental, social, governance (EST) criteria.
The panel also noted the impact on static portfolio management by disruptive technologies and a need to rethink concepts of finance and business in order to keep up with the pace of technological progress. Many institutional investors and corporations around the world have set up flexible venture capital funds focused on investing in new technologies. Benjamin spoke on how to structure low-risk ESG-compliant cleantech infrastructure assets enabled by emerging clean energy technologies (baseload vs. intermittent power). (Learn more)
RiskMinds is a leading international risk management event produced by Informa.
Strategic Committee Member, Tatsuo Masuda speaks about our goals to revolutionise electricity access in Africa via new clean energy technologies and a decentralised power grid system.
CTO, Benjamin Khoo, was invited to speak at All-Energy Australia (11-12 October, 2017) – Australia’s most comprehensive renewable and clean energy event on the next generation of clean energy technologies.
Panel Discussion “Does Responsible Investing Matter?”, during the Insurance Forum 2017 on 01 June 2017, at the Four Seasons Hotel, Hong Kong, China.
Elion House:
CTI/CIO, Benjamin Khoo, speaks alongside Invesco and BSR at the AsianInvestor Insurance Forum 2017 sponsored by Invesco at the Four Seasons in Hong Kong.
“Over the last 25 years bridging cleantech development and financial engineering, I have noticed a convergence of science and of human consciousness. As new technologies continue to disrupt the world, it is time to rethink concepts of technology, business, and finance, using them as tools to tackle the most pressing problems facing the world. Cleantech infrastructure enabled by new clean energy technologies is a new asset class that is ESG-compliant and can provide investors with low-risk and superior returns over the long-term”.
Invesco & AsianInvestor:
“Investing according to ESG principles involves the consideration of environmental, social and governance
issues when selecting companies and countries in which to invest.”
“In the past, ESG issues typically resulted in the exclusion
of certain industrial sectors (in armaments, tobacco and
alcohol companies, for example) or certain countries from
investment portfolios. While such ‘exclusion’ techniques are
still widely used, the incorporation of ESG considerations in
investment decisions is now done in a variety of ways.”
“One indicator of the increasing awareness of ESG issues
is the growing number of institutional investors that are
signatories to the United Nations–supported Principles for
Responsible Investment (UN PRI). Invesco became a UN
PRI signatory in 2013. According to PRI, the assets under
management of its signatories have grown from less than
US$7 trillion at PRI’s launch in 2006 to US$62 trillion as of April
2016 (Figure 2), more than three quarters of the global asset
management industry’s assets.”
“As signatories, institutional investors have a duty to act in
the best long-term interests of their beneficiaries. In that
fiduciary role, signatories believe that ESG issues can affect
the performance of investment portfolios and recognise
that applying six key ESG principles may better align
investors with broader objectives of society. The six key
principles are:
• to incorporate ESG issues into investment analysis and
decision-making;
• to be active owners and incorporate ESG issues into
ownership policies and practices;
• to seek appropriate disclosure of ESG issues;
• to promote acceptance and implementation of the
principles in the industry;
• to work together to enhance effectiveness in
implementing the principles and
• to report on activities and progress towards implementing
the principles.”
CIO, Benjamin Khoo, was invited back to speak on the infrastructure panel in Singapore on how cleantech infrastructure funds are becoming a significant asset class for institutional investors driven by record negative interest rates, the Paris Agreement, and a growing demand for new assets with a low correlation to other assets and the economy.
With the Paris Agreement now in force, he talked about portfolio de-carbonisation and a superior yield offering in cleantech infrastructure with sustainable low-risk cash flows, and how to protect your investment portfolio over the long run via strategic allocations towards ESG-compliant infrastructure or real economy assets.
Members of China’s National People’s Congress Standing Committee adopted “the proposal to review and ratify the Paris Agreement” on Saturday morning at the end of a week-long session.
The Paris deal is the world’s first comprehensive climate agreement. It will only come into force legally after it is ratified by at least 55 countries, which between them produce 55% of global carbon emissions.
Paris agreement: Key points
To keep global temperature increase “well below” 2C (36F) and to pursue efforts to limit it to 1.5C (27F)
To peak greenhouse gas emissions as soon as possible and achieve a balance between sources and sinks of greenhouse gases in the second half of this century
To review progress every five years
$100bn a year in climate finance for developing countries by 2020, with a commitment to further finance in the future
Once the deal comes into force, countries that have ratified it have to wait for a minimum of three years before they exit
When the US – the world’s second-largest emitter – follows China’s lead, it will bump the tally up to 40%.
Before China made this announcement, the 23 nations that had ratified the agreement accounted for just over 1% of emissions.
Analysts warn that the target of keeping temperature rises below 2C is already in danger of being breached.
For 14 consecutive months meteorologists have recorded the hottest month on record, and the UK’s Met Office has forecast that 2016 is likely to hit temperatures 1.1C above pre-industrial levels.
Average temperatures worldwide are likely to increase more in the coming years as the effect of previous carbon emissions makes itself felt.
The G20 summit in Hangzhou, starting on Sunday, is a meeting of leaders from 20 countries. It is expected to be Barack Obama’s last trip to Asia as the president of the US.
Mr Obama is expected to announce on Saturday that the US is formally joining the Paris Agreement.
It is thought that he and China’s President Xi Jinping will make a joint announcement at a bilateral meeting.
Elion House is pleased to announce the addition of Seah Moon Ming as Honorary Adviser. He is Group Chief Executive Officer of Pavilion Energy, Singapore’s integrated energy company owned by Temasek. Chairman of International Enterprise (IE) Singapore, the government agency that partners Singapore companies in going global and promotes international trade. IE vision is a thriving business hub in Singapore with Globally Competitive Companies and leading international traders. IE has a global network of overseas centres in over 35 locations which provides the necessary connections in many developed and emerging markets.
Mr Seah is also Chairman of Singapore Cooperation Enterprise, Trusted Board Ltd and China & North Asia Business Group of Singapore Business Federation. He also sits on the board of Singapore Technologies Electronics and Alexandra Health System Pte Ltd. Mr Seah is a member of the Board of Trustees, SIM University, Singapore and Adjunct Professor at its School of Science & Technology. He was Chairman of Temasek Polytechnic from 2006 to 2014.
He was conferred the IES/IEEE Joint Medal of Excellence Award 2008 by the Institution of Engineers Singapore (IES) and the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers. He received the Honorary Fellow Award from the ASEAN Federation of Engineering Organisations (AFEO), as well as Fellow of the ASEAN Academy of Engineering and Technology (AAET).
Mr Seah is a recipient of the Oil Council’s 2014 APAC Executive of the Year Award. Mr Seah is also a recipient of the 2011 Distinguished Engineering Alumni Award, conferred by the NUS Faculty of Engineering. He was awarded the 2006 Asia Brand Innovation – Ten Most Outstanding Personality Award and the 6th International Management Action Award by Chartered Management Institute, Singapore in 2007.
In January 2008, Mr Seah was conferred the title of Honorary Citizen of Guiyang, China. He was named as one of China’s Top 10 International Chinese Achievers for Financial & Intelligent Persons in 2007 by a consortium of organisations, including the Beijing Normal University and the Chinese editions of Fortune and Time magazines.
Mr Seah holds a Bachelor of Engineering with a major in Electronics Engineering from the National University of Singapore and a Master of Science (EE) with distinction from Naval Postgraduate School, USA. He also attended the Stanford-NUS Executive Program and the Management Development & Advanced Management Program at Harvard University.
Elion House, Benjamin Khoo, on the Debt and Infrastructure Financing Panel talks about how Clean Technology Infrastructure innovation can generate superior low-risk yields for institutional investors in the current ultra-low yield environment.
The bespoke real economy asset class is positioned to meet the surging demand by global investors for environment, social and governance (ESG) compliant assets which can generate sustainable and long-term returns.
Rana Karadsheh-Haddad, Country Manager Singapore, International Finance Corporation (IFC)
Brian Tang, Managing Director, Asia Capital Markets Institute
Benjamin Khoo, Managing Director, Regenerative Energy & Infrastructure – Elion House
The forum heard from a cross-section of governments, investors, issuers and regulators as they discuss the current issues impacting raising debt and the most lucrative sectors in the Southeast Asian market.
