Across the UAE, more than 40 per cent of investors respectively want to put their money towards addressing climate issues, the UK-listed bank said.

Research from the bank says that more than AED30 trillion of investable retail wealth could be channelled into sustainable investments by 2030 to finance ESG objectives in 10 growth markets.

The report, entitled Mobilising retail investor capital,  also highlights investment barriers and ways to make sustainable investment more mainstream as an asset class. 

ESG priorities for investors in the UAE include: Climate change and carbon emissions (38 per cent); energy and resource use (31 per cent), and pollution and waste management (26 per cent).

UAE investors said the top barriers to increasing their sustainable investments were difficulties in making comparisons (47 per cent); perceived low returns/higher risk (45 per cent), and comprehensibility (44 per cent).