Doug McTaggart
Big Queensland-based institutional investor QIC is the latest Australian company to sign up to the United National Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI).
The company announced its decision to sign up to the principles today, with chief executive Doug McTaggart claiming the move reinforced QIC’s view that environmental, social and governance issues directly affected investment returns.
“We did not sign the PRI just to be ‘green’,” he said. “We believe that environmental, social and governance issues must be taken into consideration to continue to deliver superior risk-adjusted returns to our clients.”
McTaggart said that QIC would now be encouraging its external investment managers to follow the UN principles.
He said that QIC believed the consequences of climate change would have a significant influence on investment returns and that while it would have a negative impact on some industries, it would also create new investment opportunities.
