-: Marc-André, welcome.
We know that governments
and businesses need to work together in the transition
to a low-carbon economy, but what does that look like?
-: Well, it takes many forms
because the,
the challenges we're facing in climate, when you think about
that, government acting alone cannot do it.
And actually, investors acting alone cannot do it.
Or the civil society at large acting alone cannot do it.
So you need to bring every stakeholder together,
and this is why this COP is so important.
And I like the motto of this COP that is "unite, act,
and deliver" because it's exactly what we need to be doing.
But that means we need to build trust
between all of those parts,
and it's not easy at a time when there's populism
and all of that. What it looks like for investors,
it takes the form of blended finance
and it takes the form of recognizing
that not all capital has the same risk tolerance.
And, whether you're philanthropy
or you're an institutional investor or your family office
or you're a VC, private equity...everybody has different
risk tolerance.
But we all have a role to play in the transition,
and that's how we need to come together.
And, I think blended finance is the solution
to everything we need to be doing.
-: Specifically, the role of institutional
investors...talk to me about that.
-: Well, institutional investors are a big player.
I mean, we control altogether more than half
of the investible capital in the world, so we obviously need
to be part of the solution.
And institutional investors, like CDPQ,
which is a largely a pension fund from Canada, Quebec...
how we do that is we've set ourselves,
you know, very high targets for reduction
of our carbon footprint, increasing our green assets.
But where we make the most difference,
the biggest difference, is actually on how we invest.
Making sure that each
and every investment,
we do an ESG analysis, we look at what's the impact
on climate and also how we engage
with our portfolio companies.
That will make a huge difference going forward.
You know, are we engaging in depth
with our portfolio company to actually make sure
that they're as aligned as possible with climate?
And that's a question of value creation for us.
-: ESG has had a rough time of it of late, I think
that's probably fair to say.
Where does the future lie for ESG
and institutional investors, do you think?
-: Well, I think it's a question of vocabulary
because I think it's like,
I know in some parts of the world, ESG is not so popular,
but at the end, for us, ESG is not only looking at the risk,
but it's looking at value creation.
You take two companies, exactly the same balance sheet,
exactly the same financial numbers,
but one has leadership that is more diverse,
the same one uses less water,
has a smaller carbon footprint, has less
of a footprint on real estate.
And you can go on and on and on.
Which company is valued most?
The market has already said it.
It's that company that actually is aligned
with sustainable development
has more value than the other.
-: So it doesn't
matter what we call it. It's the principles that count.
-: Exactly. And for us, we look at it in a way
that, it's value creation,
it's making sure that our assets,
we are a long-term asset owner, making sure
that our assets are not stranded.
Just think about real estate,
and the impact of the rise of sea levels on real estate.
We need to think about it as an investor
who owns real estate
and will own the same piece of real estate
for the next 20, 25 years.
-: Marc-André, thank you so much.
-: Thank you.