单词/词组

Dilbert 呆伯特，卡通人物，挣扎在商场的平庸之辈

potshot 肆意抨击，胡乱扫射

colicky 腹绞痛

diarrhea 腹泻

obliterate 消除，消灭

hardwired 硬连线，密切相关

a large swath of 一大串，swath 一长条田地

emblematic 象征性的，重读m

syndicated 一稿多投

comic strip 四个漫画

pokes fun at 嘲笑

poke 刺，戳，奚落。probe

besmirch 诽谤，玷污

adherent 拥护者

call on 号召，请求

呆伯特公然批判ESG

文 | Tim Quinson

译 | Jingyi

ESG（Environment, Society, Government）成为主流这件事，就目前而言，开始存在争议了。

即便是 Dilbert 这个人物的创造者，在ESG投资决策上也存在肆意妄为，ESG是专门针对环境、社会、政府的证券。上周一系列证据显示，作者 Scott Adam 对ESG提出批评，将这类证券比作，一个腹痛很久的小朋友得到了宣泄。

作者 Adam 因其总是有强烈的建议而闻名，并且，他关于ESG证券的立场与观点，恰好又与 Florida 和 Texas 政治粉饰与节奏一致，以及其他共和党领导人。这些领导人称，他们想要消除在美国公司范围内盛行的某些，投资哲学。而 Adam 正在从事这项事业，上周在 YouTube 火了的视频（aired last week），Adam 称，“我将要毁掉 ESG”，或者至少“向它开一枪”。

Adam 是一个卡通漫画家，类似于 Florida 的政客 Ron DeSantis 绕有争议地，展现了更清晰、更危险（的观点），针对 ESG。这项政客特点，很可能解释了为什么一些年金巨头（金融投资公司），这些公司通常都代表了数以百万的工人，这些公司略微将其注意力转移到 Ron 或者其他美国右翼政客。

那些攻击 ESG 的势力主要是评估了短期收益是“滑稽”且“毫无意义”的，Matti Leppala 说到，这位 PensionsEurope CEO。美国退休委员会CEO（American Retirement Association）Brian Graff, 认为这些绑定ESG的证券需要免费救助， 如果这些证券背后的公司，真的是想要从事他们一开始声称的事业的话。

而事实是，EGS 与金融市场密切相关，因为ESG相关事件会使得人们大量抛弃投资原则——特别是环境和社会领域内的问题加剧时——这类事件发生，往往加剧紧张（至少最近如此）。

和ESG相关资产将超过50万亿美元，预计到2025年为止，代表了目前已投资资产的1/3，已投资资产规模 140.5万亿美元（under management），覆盖全球，彭博商业智能估计。另外，超过90%的标普500成分股，现在会印发ESG报告，依据麦肯锡、SEC要求的与ESG相关的披露，这项规定将大举应用于美国公司。

然而，这些事实并没有改变共和党关注ESG的角度，他们认为ESG证券存在基本的伪假设（underlying hypocrisies）。有时候，批判者会援引 Adam 以及他所刻画的人物，作为他们象征性观点。

Dilbert 是一部一稿多投的四格漫画，出现在2000多张报纸上（* 可能指的是2000+种报刊媒体），分布于57个国家，翻译成19种语言。这些成就是 Adam 自己写在网站上的。Adam 通过一个卡通形象（character），嘲笑了ESG的评级系统，并称他可以帮助改善这项功能，以此获取100万美元的报酬。当客户问及，“难道你没有独立的ESG评级系统吗？”这个卡通形象回复：“我并没有说这很难”。

其他的批评类似于“聚焦于绿色生活流行病是诽谤ESG名誉的行为”，某种意义上，对一些投资策略最大拥护者（热衷于策略）产生相当的影响。尽管很可能并非直接由于这些卡通人物。

Nicolai Tangen 管理挪威的1.2万亿主权财富基金，呼吁投资人始终关注ESG相关主题。如果其他投资人不响应，则会产生“真正危险”议题，例如，保护环境在议事日程再往下降的话，将会遭遇滑铁卢，Nicolai 告诉金融时报。

“我们想要传达的是，（ESG）对于投资人是多么重要，让我们能够真正长期思考，持续推动公司往正确的方向。”Carine Smith Ihenacho， 挪威基金的主要管理人（chief governance and compliance offcier of the Norwegian Fund），告诉金融时报。

‘Dilbert’ adds his voice to the fight against ESG

By Tim Quinson

There’s now little doubt ESG has gone mainstream.

Even the creator of the “Dilbert” cartoon is taking potshots at an investment strategy that focuses on risks tied to the environment, social and corporate governance. In a series of illustrations published last week, author Scott Adams criticized ESG, comparing it to a “colicky” baby with “firehouse diarrhea.”

Adams is known for his strong opinions, and his position on ESG matches the political rhetoric coming from the governors of Florida and Texas, as well as other Republican leaders. They say they want to obliterate the investment philosophy from the American corporate landscape. Adams is onboard: In a YouTube video that aired last week, he said, “I am going to destroy ESG,” or at least “take a shot at it.”

Adams is a cartoonist. Politicians like Florida’s Ron DeSantis arguably present a more clear and present danger to ESG. Which is probably why pension giants representing the interests of millions of workers have turned their attention to him and other right-wing American politicians.

Efforts to attack ESG based on an assessment of short-term returns are “ridiculous” and “meaningless,” said Matti Leppala, chief executive of PensionsEurope. And, Brian Graff, CEO of the American Retirement Association, said savers ought to be free to invest in ESG-integrated plans if that’s what they want.



The fact is that ESG is now so hardwired into financial markets that effectuating wholesale abandonment of the principles behind it—especially given intensifying crises in the environmental and societal spheres—seems like a stretch (at least in the near term).

ESG-related assets are likely to exceed $50 trillion by 2025, when they will represent more than one third of the projected $140.5 trillion in total global assets under management, analysts at Bloomberg Intelligence estimate. Additionally, more than 90% of S&P 500 companies now publish ESG reports, according to McKinsey & Co., and the US Securities and Exchange Commission is planning mandatory ESG-related disclosure rules that will apply to a large swath of corporate America.

But these realities aren’t stopping Republicans from focusing on what they see as some of the underlying hypocrisies of ESG. In some ways, the criticisms leveled by Adams and his fictional characters have come to be emblematic of that position.

“Dilbert” is a syndicated comic strip that appears in more than 2,000 newspapers, 57 countries and 19 languages, Adams says on his website. In one of his cartoons, Adams pokes fun at the ESG rating system with one character saying he can help improve his client’s rating for $1 million. The client asks: “Don’t you own an independent ESG rating service?” And the character responds: “I didn’t say it would be hard.”

Criticisms like that—centered on the epidemic of greenwashing that’s besmirched ESG’s reputation—are certainly having an impact on some of the investing strategy’s biggest adherents (though perhaps not directly because of the cartoons).

Nicolai Tangen, who runs Norway’s $1.2 trillion sovereign wealth fund, called on investors to stay focused on ESG-related issues. If they don’t, there’s a “real danger” issues like protecting the environment will slip even further down the agenda, he told the Financial Times.

“What we want to convey is how important it is for investors like us to really think long term and continue to push companies in the right direction,” Carine Smith Ihenacho, chief governance and compliance officer of the Norwegian fund, told the FT.