3 minutes pour lire Par  RBC Emerging Markets Equity team 3 décembre 2025

We share a summary of our tenth annual Emerging Markets Equity ESG report

ESG has formed part of our philosophy and process since the inception of the RBC Emerging Markets Equity Strategy (“the strategy”) in 2010¹, and we have continuously strived to expand our knowledge and efforts in this space. We have looked to invest in management teams that share this ethos, focusing on companies that promote a culture of excellence, who look to build strong relationships with all stakeholders and invest for the long term.

In this year’s report, we explore an array of ESG topics. We also report on our activities as active owners, sharing details of our company engagements and proxy voting through the course of the year, as well as notable company case studies.

Engagement has always formed an important component of our approach to ESG². While we engage on a company-by-company basis, focusing on the issues most relevant and material to each holding, we also identify focus engagement topics. These are select topics that we, as a team, deem critical across all companies where we look to build expertise. This year, we introduced two new topics: water conservation and societal value. In our report, we introduce our research on these areas and summarize the initial findings of our engagements.

We also share highlights from our work on climate change, one of our longstanding focus areas of engagement. After four years of conducting an annual net-zero assessment of our investee companies, we are pleased to report progress in terms of company targets, disclosures, and strategy-level metrics. The strategy currently has a 78% lower weighted average carbon intensity (“WACI”) than the MSCI EM Index (based on WACI sales, Scope 1 and 2 emissions)³.

Whilst our ESG analysis is primarily conducted at company level, being aware of material ESG factors at country and sector level is useful for our overall portfolio strategy, and for positioning our portfolios in areas of structural growth while avoiding the risks. This year, we explore parental leave standards across countries and also discuss the concept of ethical AI.

We also analyze developments across the ESG investment landscape given significant fluctuations in recent years, from peak investor exuberance during the Covid pandemic to growing scrutiny and outflows more recently.

For the full RBC Emerging Markets Equity ESG report, please contact: institutions@phn.com

¹ESG integration does not apply to certain funds, investment strategies, asset classes, exposures or security types, including, but not limited to, money market, buy and maintain, passive, and certain third-party sub-advised funds/strategies or certain currency or derivative instruments. Where our investment teams do integrate ESG factors, the weight given to ESG factors in an investment decision depends on the investment team’s assessment of that ESG factor’s potential impact on the performance of the security and/or the fund. For funds where ESG factors are not part of the investment objective, ESG factors are generally unlikely to drive investment decisions on their own, and, in some cases, may not impact an investment decision at all.
²RBC GAM has a general approach to active stewardship, proxy voting, and engagement that addresses ESG matters among other matters.
³ RBC GAM, MSCI ESG climate change metrics, MSCI®, as at 30 June 2025.

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Déclarations

This material is provided by RBC Global Asset Management (RBC GAM) for informational purposes only and may not be reproduced, distributed or published without the written consent of RBC GAM or the relevant affiliated entity listed herein. RBC GAM is the asset management division of Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) which includes RBC Global Asset Management Inc. (RBC GAM Inc.), RBC Global Asset Management (U.S.) Inc. (RBC GAM-US), RBC Global Asset Management (UK) Limited (RBC GAM-UK), and RBC Global Asset Management (Asia) Limited (RBC GAM-Asia), which are separate, but affiliated subsidiaries of RBC.

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© RBC Global Asset Management Inc., 2025

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