Quilter Cheviot's Claudia Quiroz: Issues for investors as US and Europe ESG divergence widens

DE&I 'in the line of fire'

Following the election of Donald Trump as US president, we have seen a distinctive shift in companies’ attitudes towards analysing and reporting environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors.

This, of course, will be of no surprise given the rhetoric in the lead up to the election from Republicans and the actions of ‘red states' in recent years when dealing with asset managers who have taken ESG data seriously and integrated it in their investment analysis. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DE&I) programmes are in the line of fire, with many being ended since Trump's inauguration in January. Alphabet, Meta, Goldman Sachs, McDonald's, Amazon – the list of firms to cancel their programmes goes on. According to Bloomberg, approximately 20% of companies in the S&P 100 have s...