Commodities for Sustainable Development

Commodities for Sustainable Development: Exchange-Traded Commodities and Other Commodity-linked Financial Instruments offers detailed, highly focused insight into commodities investing in line with sustainability and ESG principles. It uniquely focuses on commodities in the sustainable/ESG investment portfolios with the exposure gained through the units of ETCs, and it provides an up-to-date review of the literature and theoretical concepts in this emerging area of commodities investing. It is designed as a detailed discussion of various topics concerning commodities and their role in sustainability, understood twofold as contributions or barriers to sustainable development and one of the major components in sustainable investing portfolios. The book explains the main features of ETCs and compares them to other similar financial products—especially the ones used for commodities investing—indicating their relative strengths and weaknesses. It also discusses the possible impact of ETCs on related markets, including the ones for the underlying assets, derived from empirical and theoretical examinations. The empirical analysis presented in the book covers all ETCs available globally, thus offering valuable insights into the often-understudied markets. It also covers the possible application of ETCs as tools for sustainable investing in commodities. It discusses problematic issues linked to commodities investments (from the sustainability perspective) and assesses the ESG profile of the major ETCs, also as detailed case studies. It also discusses sustainable development policies in the context of the commodities and financial investment industries. This book serves as a valuable resource for a wide range of readers—researchers, students, instructors, and professionals alike—due to its theoretical and empirical outline of the commodities-linked financial instruments, particularly ETCs.

• Discusses highly debated issues in the fields of commodities, sustainable (ESG) finance and sustainable development, merging them with the presentation of relatively understudied topic of ETCs that remain unknown financial instruments among global audiences, despite the opportunities for commodities investing they provide
• Applies various levels of analysis and research methods, leading to both macro- and micro-level conclusions—for instance, concerning not only the role of ETCs in the context of the SDGs, but also showing the benefits and challenges of applications of ETCs in the investment portfolios
• Includes a highly detailed empirical analysis, utilizing a comprehensive database throughout the book, with information on all ETCs—regardless of their activity status—with diverse commodities’ exposure on all financial markets worldwide
• Utilizes the example of a market for exchange-traded commodities (ETCs), merging the academic and practical perspectives