On July 16, "New Development Sustainable - 2021 China Social Responsibility Summit IFCII" was successfully held in Shanghai. 2021 IFCII is organized by China Academy of Financial Inclusion (CAFI), co-sponsored by China Business First Research Institute (CAFI) and Shanghai Advanced Institute of Finance (SAIF) of Shanghai Jiao Tong University (SJTU). Denis Duverne, Chairman of AXA, delivered a speech in the keynote session titled "Socially Responsible Investment: Measurement and Management". Ms. Zhu Yaming, CEO of AXA Tianping, AXA's wholly owned property and casualty insurer in China, was also invited to the dinner to talk about the future of sustainable development.
Impact investing is a successful model practiced by the AXA Group
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About ten years ago, in 2013, the AXA Group launched its first Impact Fund, and through the Asset Management Company, we are now managing close to $900 million in assets, all following the principles of impact, and have increased our assets by 40%. This is a testament to the success and growing maturity of the impact investing model. Also in the process, we are physically involved in impact asset management decisions.
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It is important to understand that impact investing is an investment behavior and should not be confused with philanthropy. That said, impact investing performance metrics include both financial and impact metrics. AXA currently has four impact funds, three of which focus on climate change and biodiversity, as well as financial inclusion, healthcare, and quality education. There is also one that utilizes a hybrid strategy with environmental and social objectives. AXA contributes to the development of impact investing as both an asset manager and an asset owner. AXA's impact investing strategy is also one of the key ways to contribute to the achievement of the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
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Our funds have a considerable positive impact globally, and we contribute to providing clean energy to nearly 3 million households. We also provide financial inclusion products to 100 million people, carry out related healthcare facilities, avoid carbon dioxide emissions and save more than 42,200 tons of water. For AXA's environment-related investments, we assess the amount of CO2 emission reductions and how many disadvantaged people are empowered, and for social investments we calculate how many people have access to financial services and solutions through our investments, or how many people's basic financial needs are met, or how many lives are saved and improved through the provision of healthcare solutions.
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Our Impact Measurement and Management System covers all aspects of our investment process, from initial assessment and evaluation through to competitive polling, investment, monitoring and exit, with ESG considerations embedded throughout the investment lifecycle. Before we invest, we evaluate the investment and seek correlation between ESG impacts. Also throughout the investment cycle, we monitor performance related to impact objectives, and we use the same approach to continuously monitor financial objectives, in line with our impact management system and the operating principles of impact management. This principle was also created with a contribution from AXA as a founding member.
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We evaluate each investment and define specific objectives for the contribution of the program. We also refer to industry and international norms. Over 50% of our portfolio is based on ESG management principles. We are also one of the first companies to divest in industries with negative impacts. Back in 2015 it was one of the first investors to divest in the coal sector, which is the most carbon-intensive, and we want to avoid catastrophic consequences, which we call impact divestment. We think it's the right thing to do both from an environmental perspective, but also economically it's a beneficial decision, and history has shown us to be right on that decision.
Insurance is more about "protecting the fundamentals of life"
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Insurance is about creating a safety net for everyone. When a disaster occurs, or an accident occurs, it is vital to avoid anti-poverty. In many countries and regions around the world, there may not yet be a public **** safety net in place to intervene, so we want to be able to support and complement it adequately. We estimate that roughly 3 billion people are affected by uncontrollable events, many of whom are on low incomes, and we want to create insurance products that are simple, fair, and pro-poor. We hope that insurance products will provide better protection for under-protected groups against risks, and help them improve their overall financial position and maintain sustainable income growth in the face of unforeseen events.
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Through this strategy, we are protecting 22.3 million emerging customers around the world, which I think reflects what AXA is all about, protecting the fundamentals of life and practicing human progress. To ensure a positive impact through insurance, we have set up a framework to improve the impact of insurance, and such a framework includes a number of metrics. First, we assess customer satisfaction. Because we can only achieve our goals if customers find value in our products, the assessment includes detailed categories such as product features, the claims process, the quality of consumer education and ****enjoyment information. Next we compare the impact of insurance with the informal mechanisms that people use to manage risk, ensuring that value is added and that it contributes to sustainable development, including changing behaviors over time.
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We also often invite external researchers to help us ensure we are working in the right direction. For example, we recently launched a joint research project with the China Academy of Financial Inclusion (CAFI) to better understand China's low-income population, which we hope will be used by all organizations involved in financial inclusion to deepen the development of financial inclusion in China.
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AXA has also initiated insurance and reinsurance, and we have insurers in the Net Zero Insurance Alliance, and reinsurers contributing to gas neutralization. AXA has taken action within the company, starting in 2015 we have realized underwriting limits for coal carbon, oil sands, not an easy decision to make, but it is the right thing to do.
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Would also like to talk about the Sustainable Development Goals, and insurance is the best tool to achieve this. We are fortunate that more and more organizations, including UN agencies and national development agencies, are seeing the full value that insurance can bring to development and are contributing to the momentum of positive developments, so I believe that the SDGs will provide even more space and opportunities for insurance in the future.
Conclusion
As one of the earliest batch of foreign insurance companies to enter China, AXA has always been committed to bringing global vision and resources, advanced technology and innovative ideas to China to lead the way for future development. As Ms. Zhu Yaming, Chief Executive Officer of AXA Tianping, said, "As an insurance company, in addition to our mission to provide reliable risk management and protection for millions of families and businesses in China, we are also actively focusing on the issue of sustainable development of the industry, especially on the topic of opening up the financial industry to address climate change with insurance + technology. We are willing to contribute our own efforts to innovate in climate finance and promote the mature international experience to the vast domestic market, so that insurance can serve the real economy."