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Wealth & Society Summit 2024
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Sept, 26-27 Vienna, Austria
Wealth Transfer: Building a Sustainable Future
The world is changing, and so are the ways families manage their wealth. A historic generational transfer is underway, creating both challenges and incredible opportunities.
Asian and European forward-thinking families are leading the way by involving stakeholders and planning for a sustainable future. 50+ of the leading Chinese and European families will be joining us.
This is more than just passing on money. It's about building a legacy that considers society, culture, and family dynamics.
Wealth & Society's flagship ESG and Impact Investing Summit explores these critical aspects of wealth transfer. Join us for engaging discussions, real-world case studies, and insightful presentations from experts around the globe.
Together, we can navigate this transformative era and unlock the potential of responsible wealth management.
Swiss Finance Institute
Research Paper Series -N°20-63
Choosing Investment Managers
Summary:
EU-China rift deepens as Vestager launches clean tech subsidy investigation
Dissatisfaction with the European Union is mounting in Beijing following the European Commission’s launch of an inquiry into Chinese wind turbine suppliers.
Wind parks in five EU member states – Spain, Greece, France, Romania and Bulgaria – will undergo scrutiny to determine whether illegal subsidies have been granted to Chinese wind turbine producers, sparking fears of harm to Europe’s domestic industry from cheaper imported clean tech products.
The move comes six months after the Commission formally launched an anti-subsidy investigation into the imports of battery electric vehicles (BEV) from China. The investigation will conclude whether BEV value chains in China benefit from illegal subsidisation and whether this threatens domestic BEV producers.
Commission executive vice-president Margrethe Vestager announced the inquiry on 9 April during a speech on technology and politics at the Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton, New Jersey, and acknowledged China has built a strong position in the technological revolution but has not always played fair.
‘Massive subsidies”‘
According to Vestager, China came to dominate the solar panel industry by attracting foreign investment, acquiring the technology, and granting “massive subsidies” for domestic suppliers, before exporting excess capacity cheaply.
“Nowadays, less than three per cent of the solar panels installed in the EU are produced in Europe. We see this playbook deployed across all clean tech areas – as China doubles down on a supply-side support strategy, to address its economic downturn.”
In-depth investigations into Chinese companies in the solar photovoltaic sector were recently launched by the Commission, resulting in a Chinese state-owned company withdrawing its bid in a public tender for trains in Bulgaria.
Vestager, who has been European Commissioner for Competition since 2014, said this endangers competitiveness and the bloc’s economic security, adding the EU has seen how one-sided dependencies “can be used against us”, adding: “We’re making full use of the tools that we have. We can’t afford to see what happened on solar panels, happening again on electric vehicles, wind or essential chips.”
‘Typical protectionism’
Chinese Commerce Ministry spokesperson He Yadong called the move “typical protectionism”, arguing that Chinese new energy companies have secured a leading position globally through innovation, sound production and full market competition.
“This could not be achieved through subsidies. China is strongly dissatisfied with and firmly opposes this action. Such a move will turn the EU into an obstructer of global green transformation, an obstacle of China-EU investment cooperation, and a destroyer of mutual economic and trade trust,” remarked the spokesperson.
China’s Chamber of Commerce to the EU (CCCEU) also expressed dissatisfaction with what it called a “lack of transparency” in the EU’s intervention in the “regular business of Chinese enterprises” in the bloc.
“This action sends a detrimental signal to the world, suggesting discrimination against Chinese enterprises and endorsing protectionism,” a statement of the CCCEU read.
It also mentioned reports by Chinese companies that the Commission’s FSR investigations have widened the definition of “foreign financial contribution” beyond subsidies, and have imposed tight deadlines for submitting sensitive materials.
Strategising the clean tech battle
In 2023, the European Commission presented centrepieces of a strategy to ensure it accelerates and leads the clean energy transition, competing with the United States and China in producing clean tech.
The Commission explained global investment in the green revolution is set to triple by 2030. China produces 80 per cent of the global solar panel output and about two-thirds of the world’s electric vehicles, wind turbines and lithium-ion batteries.
An agreement on the Net-Zero Industry Act (NZIA) was reached earlier in February, and it is expected to enter force later this year. The NZIA aims to simplify the process of granting permits for projects that enhance EU manufacturing, ensuring they are authorised within a period of 18 months.
In January, a Commission study found China is outpacing the EU in clean-energy research, posing a challenge to the bloc’s green-tech ambitions. In 2021, China surpassed other nations in the quantity of peer-reviewed publications covering solar and wind power, lithium battery technology, heat pumps, and carbon capture. It marks a shift from 2010, when the EU dominated publications in these sectors, except for wind power.
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Climate change driving demand for predatory loans, research shows
By: Hilary Beaumont
Study connects heatwaves and cold snaps to surges in payday lending, keeping people in debt and harming communities of color
Two competing payday loan stores stand on the corners of an intersection in south Los Angeles. An area of persistent poverty, south LA is also a banking desert where payday lenders fill the gap. Long lines form inside the stores on the first of the month, when rent is due.
Guillermina Molina, a 60-year-old retired housekeeper, visits the same Speedy Cash each month. During the summer months – which are becoming increasingly hot – she runs her air conditioner but frets about her utility bills. “It’s kind of hard because the [power bill] is coming up too high because you gotta have the air conditioner on,” Molina said.
Does New York’s ‘rooftop solar gap’ leave low-income residents behind?
Report: Households making less than $50,000 annually make up 24% of owner-occupied houses in New York but have only received 5% of residential tax credit subsidies
Although New York has the largest of several state tax credit incentives for homeowners installing rooftop solar, the state’s “rooftop solar gap” is large, leaving many low-income residents unable to take full advantage of incentives, according to a new report from think tank Win Climate.
New York’s State Solar Tax Credit has paid for 25% of a rooftop solar installation, or $5,000 – whichever is less. The Residential Solar Tax Credit Reform Act (S3596/ A6739) made the tax credit fully refundable, with the intention of allowing low-income homeowners and residents to benefit, and increased the tax credit amount to $10,000.
The report, Closing NY’s Rooftop Solar Gap, aimed to analyze how many New York residents have utilized the State Solar Tax Credit, and how the Residential Solar Tax Credit Reform Act could impact the cost of solar for low-income residents. The “rooftop solar gap” is the difference in rooftop solar installation rates between households making more and less than $50,000 per year.
Per the report, New York homeowners with an annual income of more than $50,000 are 2.5 times more likely to have rooftop solar than those making below $50,000, as those making below $50,000 often don’t pay enough income tax to fully claim the credit. Households making less than $50,000 annually make up 24% of owner-occupied houses in New York, but have only received 5% of residential tax credit subsidies.
Climate crisis increasing frequency of deadly ocean upwells, study finds
Intense patches of cold water rising from the depths are killing sharks, rays and other creatures, researchers say
A climate-disrupted ocean is pushing sharks, rays and other species to flee ever-hotter water in the tropics, only for them to be killed by increasingly intense upwells of cold water from the depths, a study has found.
One of the authors of the paper described the “eerie” aftermath of a mass die-off of more than 260 marine organisms from 81 species in a singular event of extreme cold upwelling off the coast of South Africa in 2021.
The paper, published in Nature Climate Change on Monday, found that shifts in ocean currents and pressure systems driven by climate breakdown were increasing the frequency and intensity of upwellings, which may in turn increase the vulnerability of migratory species such as bull sharks.
Scientists focused on the mass die-off event in 2021, which they were able to track in unusually precise detail because one of affected creature that survived was a bull shark that had been satellite tagged. They found it had been caught in water that fell more than 10C below the temperature that such tropical species were used to.
The paper details how the shark changed its behaviour in an attempt to avoid the cold areas. It swam much closer to the surface than normal and moved outside its normal migration pattern.
Many of the affected sea creatures’ carcasses washed up on the shore of South Africa, including the pup of a big manta ray that had been aborted by its traumatised mother.
“It was eerie to see so many species washed up dead,” said Ryan Daly, one of the authors of the paper. He said he was surprised that even the very mobile species, such as manta rays and bull sharks, were caught in the upwelling. “You’d think they would have swum away but they got squeezed. They couldn’t escape,” he said.
To understand the broader trends behind the die-off, the scientists tagged other sharks and used 41 years of sea surface temperature data and 33 years of wind records to investigate the frequency and intensity of cold “killer events” inshore of the Indian Ocean’s Agulhas current and the east Australian current in the past 30 years.
They found cold upwelling events had increased in frequency and intensity in these regions between 1981 and 2022. Other species killed in such events include whale sharks, convict surgeonfish, bigeye trevallies and common blacktip sharks.
Tagged bull sharks appeared to change their behaviour to avoid sudden temperature drops by swimming closer to the surface, sheltering in bays and estuaries and only moving to the extent of their poleward distribution during warm seasons.
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Coral bleaching: Fourth global mass stress episode underway - US scientists
Coral around the world is turning white and even dying as recent record ocean heat takes a devastating toll.
It has triggered the fourth global mass coral bleaching event, according to the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).
Bleaching happens when coral gets stressed and turns white because the water it lives in is too hot.
Coral sustains ocean life, fishing, and creates trillions of dollars of revenue annually.
Ocean heat records have been falling for months but this is the first global evidence of how this episode is affecting sea life.
The US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) confirmed the mass stress in all oceans (the Atlantic, Pacific and Indian Ocean) after weeks of receiving reports from scientists globally.
The bleached coral can look beautiful in pictures but scientists that dive to examine the reefs say that up close the coral is clearly ill and decaying.
Scientists in the US, Australia, Kenya and Brazil told BBC News about feeling dismay and even anger as they watched the coral they love threatened or killed by warm oceans.
The first warning signs were in the Caribbean last year when bathers found the water off the coast of Florida was as warm as a hot tub.
That heat moved into the southern hemisphere. It has now affected more than half the world's coral including in Australia's Great Barrier Reef, and in coastlines in Tanzania, Mauritius, Brazil, Pacific islands, as well as in the Red Sea and Persian Gulf.
Last August the global average ocean temperature broke its all-time record, and has been above average almost every day since.
Climate change is driving up sea surface temperatures as the warming gases emitted when we burn oil, coal and gas are absorbed by the oceans.
El Niño - a natural climate event - has also contributed to warmer temperatures since last June, though there are signs it is now weakening.
