Does BP's Gulf devastation mark an opportunity for sustainable investments?

In our podcast, David Harris, Director of Responsible Investment for FTSE Group, discusses how the oil markets and responsible investments are impacted by the BP oil spill. Harris discusses the investment universe for responsible environmental investments and considers how policy and sentiment changes could impact the space.

Click the audio player below to listen to the full episode.

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Some highlights from our episode:

• This incident hasn't had a huge impact on oil futures yet. What it's done is really increase the focus on how environmental factors can impact a company's performance. This is also about a range of things such as population growth.
• In terms of energy security, we're overly reliant on sources that are hard to manage. This could impact the value of companies in the future.
• The oil spill really highlighted some of the advantages in investing on the positive side, say, in oil cleanup companies.

"There is more concern about going after harder-to-get-at oil reserves...with an increased risk of disasters, this means governments will be more cautious. Another important aspect is that there is an increasing array of different forms of regulation...trying internalize the cost of greenhouse gas emissions."

- David Harris, FTSE