At the 9th Annual Private Banking Conference & Awards Switzerland 2024 event, hosted in Zurich, Dr Reto Cueni, chief economist at Vontobel, spoke on the long road to sustainability.
Sustainability and ESG are common topics in private banking now and Cueni said: “Many people think in different terms when it comes to sustainability.”
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When it comes to Vontobel, it utilises ESG assessments during the valuation process with 15 equal-weighted factors to aid the process.
About the road to sustainability, Cueni explained: “When we talk about ESG and sustainability, we talk about the green transition and where we want to end up in a sustainable world. It would be nice if we were already there, but to achieve it, you need a lot of minerals and metals. You need a lot of resources to make the green transition happen.”
He continued: “Everyone is pointing towards more. The question is to increase or decrease growth when it comes to metal consumption.
“A lot of trade and new production needs to keep pace and in order to get there, you need to use a lot of energy.
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By GlobalData“It’s due to population growth and an increase in living standards. Both of these lead to a higher energy demand.”
However, Cueni warned that there was a lot more to sustainability than just physical resources.
He concluded: “Know-how and innovation rule over all other resources.”
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