Speaking on a panel at the seventh annual Global Research Alliance for Sustainable Finance and Investment (GRASFI) conference on Sept 2, Koh says the cost of data gathering is another concern. “It's extremely expensive. We have to look for funders to support our research projects.”
Carbon accounting, while daunting, enjoys a common unit of measurement in tonnes of carbon dioxide equivalent, or tCO2e. Impact investing, which counts a variety of causes among its beneficiaries, is much harder to quantify.
There is currently no perfect solution, and the nascent sector is not ready for regulation, says Koh Lin-Net, institutional relations lead at Temasek Trust. “I think we need to sort out the measurement question first. Even if I had my number, how do I compare my number with somebody else’s number? There are many issues about that, and if we can’t calculate or we can’t agree on a measurement system, I think regulation may give rise to perverse outcomes.”
