In this introductory trailer, a Financial Times journalist explains why sustainability and ESG have become central to finance. She traces the rise of climate‑risk awareness—from early risk‑manager discussions to Mark Carney’s Bank of England speech warning that climate change threatens financial stability—leading to a rapid expansion of ESG investing, green bonds and an estimated $50 trillion market in the next three years. Recognising that bankers, investors, corporate CFOs, lawyers, accountants and rating agencies now need to master ever‑changing disclosure frameworks, taxonomy rules and a sea of acronyms, she pitched a specialist service within the FT, launching the Sustainable Views podcast. The podcast targets a specialist, pay‑walled audience but offers insights relevant to any consumer, with new episodes released bi‑weekly on Fridays across standard podcast platforms.
Chapters
If you work for a large company, or in finance, or even if you are a regular consumer browsing online or on the high street, chances are that you have heard of this term: sustainability. Eco-friendly products, the circular economy, sustainable strategies, ESG investments, socially responsible businesses— sustainability is a concept that has many incarnations. It is everywhere. I've been a financial journalist writing about banks for a couple of decades now. And a few years ago, risk managers started talking about climate change. Then there was the now famous speech by the then governor of the Bank of England, Mark Carney, and he was warning about climate risks to the stability of the financial system. So something like climate change, this physical externality, was now threatening finance. It was such an intriguing subject. And it wasn't just a risk story. Asset managers and pension funds started looking at companies' environmental, social, and governance factors. The first green bonds appeared. It all pretty quickly ballooned into a subject that very few could ignore, and which some estimate could be worth over $50 trillion in 3 years from now. This would be the value of ESG assets then. So I dug deeper. And it turned out that ESG wasn't just beginning to grab headlines. It was something that people, bankers, investors, corporate CFOs, but also lawyers, accountants, academics, rating agencies, people working there, well, this was starting becoming part of their jobs. They had to understand it, keep up with the ever-changing definitions, policy actions, regulators' views. And so a few months ago, I pitched the idea of a specialist service to a board member here at the Financial Times, my employer. And voilà, Sustainable Views was launched. Our content is pretty specific: disclosure frameworks, taxonomy rules, a rough sea of acronyms and abbreviations. It's meant to be for a specialist audience, for those bankers, investors, corporate CFOs, and it's behind a paywall. But much of what myself and the journalists here discuss with this nascent ESG industry is relevant to, well, anyone. Just like a regulator's technical view on what a bank or a pension fund should or shouldn't be allowed to do has an impact on our money. So we decided to open up the conversation and invite you in. Come and join us at Sustainable Views, the podcast. We will be releasing episodes on Fridays every 2 weeks, and you can find them on your usual podcast platforms. I hope to see you there.