Image: Shutterstock/Calin Tatu Image: Shutterstock/Calin Tatu This article is part of Business Futures, a series tackling the key issues shaping Irish business today and in the future. If you’re part of that future, you might want to know that The Journal has partnered with UCD Smurfit School to offer one reader a full scholarship for the Modular Executive MBA worth more than €30,000. Find out more here.
Against a backdrop of growing public and political pressure, Irish business has really only begun to reckon with its own contribution to the current state of affairs. Just last week, An Post became the first Irish logistics outfit to sign up to EV100; a push by international businesses to accelerate the shift the electric vehicles. But like so many plans, the pandemic has hampered the drive to cut emissions.
Its goal: to offset the deflationary effects of the pandemic by buying up large chunks of government and corporate bonds. The trouble is that there has been very little oversight and transparency regarding the kinds of bonds purchased. An important component of those commitments is directing capital flows towards sustainable and green projects. In the teeth of a once-in-several-generations public health crisis, how have European companies fared in the past 12 months? It’s difficult to say at the moment.