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Global sustainable investment assets grew by 34% between the beginning of 2016 and the start of 2018 to $30.7 trillion, according to a biennial report released Monday by the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance.
Sustainable investment commanded a sizable share of professionally managed assets in each region in the study, ranging from 18% in Japan to 63% in Australia and New Zealand.
According to the report, Europe accounted for the largest concentration of sustainable investment assets globally, $14.1 trillion. However, Europe's share of sustainable investing assets in the region's overall assets under professional management fell from 53% to 49%, possibly because of a move to stricter standards and definitions of sustainable investing.
The U.S. was the second largest region based on its value of sustainable investing assets, which grew from $8.7 trillion in January 2016 to $12 trillion in January 2018, an increase of 38%. Assets managed under sustainable strategies made up more than a quarter of total professionally managed assets.
Japan's sustainable investing assets quadrupled during that period to $2.2 trillion, growing from just 3% of total professionally managed assets to 18%.
In Canada, sustainable investing assets grew by 42% over the two-year period to $1.7 trillion, accounting for more than half of professionally managed assets in the country.
