Sri Lanka's angry people, who were starving because the foreign currency for importing food fell due to the murderous inflation, finally drove the president out of the country.
Corona caused the tourism industry to collapse and the government was seriously incompetent.
ESG is the concept of not only pursuing money, but investing in ethical companies for a sustainable future, and evaluates environmental and social responsibility and transparency in governance.
As a benchmark for investment, the size of ESG funds around the world soared every year, and the balance of ESG bond issuance in Korea has increased more than 100 times in three years.
Businesses also competed and set up an ESG committee.
Let's go back to Sri Lanka.
Creditors in developed countries such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF) and the World Bank recommended strengthening ESG, which has emerged as a trend, to debtor Sri Lanka, which became a fuse.
The Sri Lankan government banned all imports of chemical fertilizers in April last year, saying that it would introduce organic farming methods.
Although the intention was to be eco-friendly, many farmers gave up farming because they could not afford the cost, and rice production plummeted, leading to a food crisis.
The ESG score has risen to close to 10,000, but ironically, the national economy has collapsed.
Of course, 'ESG = soon national bankruptcy' is a leap forward, but it is true that skepticism about ESG is increasing.
He was the CEO of BlackRock, the world's largest asset manager, and a believer in ESG.
He said, "I will stop investing in fossil fuel companies," but recently suddenly declared, "I will cast my vote against the climate change countermeasures agenda."
When Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla, the No. 1 eco-friendly electric car, dropped out of the S&P 500 ESG index because of the method of evaluating all indicators together, he criticized "ESG is a scam".
This change of atmosphere, why?
First of all, the economic situation is not good.
With the Russian invasion of Ukraine and the threat of war, the question of whether it is right to remove the defense industry from investment has been raised.
ESG-related inflows have significantly decreased compared to last year.
Inflation is also a big factor.
The cost burden is already increasing, such as rising interest rates, but the additional cost due to ESG is a burden.
Disappointment with 'environment-friendly camouflage' and green washing also played a role.
ESG funds that invest in eco-friendly companies, if you look into it, you can see that there are many companies that are not eco-friendly.
The US SEC has launched an investigation, claiming that Goldman Sachs is misleading investors by exaggerating ESG.
Among Korean companies, KEPCO, which issued $500 million in green bonds, invests in coal power plants in Southeast Asia, or SK's investment in Australian offshore gas fields, which stands for ESG exemplary students,
ESG, which is in transition, is criticized as a marketing term and environmental ideology. As the essence of sustainable development for the next generation remains the same, it is time to supplement the problems and reorganize the evaluation criteria.
(Planning: Jo Ji-hyun, Composition: Shin Hee-sook, Video coverage: Jeon Gyeong-bae·Kim Yong-woo, Video editing: Ha Seong-won, CG: Ban So-hee)