Influence

• The Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC)

  The Fund continued its membership of the IIGCC. IIGCC is the European membership body for investor collaboration on climate change and the voice of investors taking action for a prosperous, low-carbon future. IIGCC has more than 400 members, mainly pension funds and asset managers, across 27 countries, with over €65 trillion in assets under management. IIGCC’s mission is to support and enable the investment community in driving significant and real progress by 2030 towards a net zero and resilient future. This will be achieved through capital allocation decisions, stewardship and successful engagement with companies, policy makers and fellow investors. IIGCC works to support and help define the public policies, investment practices and corporate behaviours that address the long-term risks and opportunities associated with climate change.

• Bulk Annuity Sustainability Principles

  Accounting for Sustainability convened a forum of pension funds, insurers, pension advisers and the regulatory community to produce a Sustainability Principles Charter for the bulk annuity process. RIEL contributed to these discussions during the reporting period. The Charter seeks to align expectations around sustainability within the bulk annuity process, noting that pension trustees have committed considerable effort to developing a sustainable approach to investment which they wish to see maintained after assets have been transferred to insurers. It sets out clear principles to drive greater transparency, reporting and engagement before, during and after a buy-out or buy-in transaction between pension funds and insurers.

• Climate Action 100+

  The Trustee is a Climate Action 100+ signatory. The organisation has developed a new strategy for extending the initiative to 2030 and seeking to inspire greater corporate climate action. The first five years of the initiative has seen an increase from only five Climate Action 100+ focus companies at the outset to 75% of them now committing to net zero, the next seven years mark a further evolution that intends to support a global scale up in active ownership. The new phase shifts focus from corporate climate-related disclosure to the implementation of corporate climate transition plans, to create long-term shareholder value in this critical decade of climate action. In consultation with signatories, the initiative has evolved its core goals through to 2030, encouraging signatories to ask companies to move from words to action, by (i) implementing a strong governance framework which clearly articulates the board’s accountability and oversight of climate change risk, (ii) taking action to actively reduce GHG emissions across the value chain, including engagement with stakeholders such as policymakers and other actors to address the sectoral barriers to transition; and (iii) providing enhanced corporate disclosure on and implementing transition plans to deliver on robust targets.

• Investment Managers

  All investment managers working for the Trustee have their own ESG or responsible ownership policies which have been reviewed by RIEL. In monitoring investment managers, RIEL conducts an annual performance review meeting in which it reviews ESG activity and developments at each firm. Investment managers are encouraged to report to RIEL on ESG issues as part of the regular quarterly reporting cycle. Although the Trustee’s engagement programme is delegated to EOS, it also benefits indirectly from corporate engagement carried out by each of its investment managers in assets held by the Fund. The number of investment managers working for the Fund has decreased during the reporting period.

• Workforce Diversity

  RIEL is committed to monitoring diversity in its investment managers and does so to ensure continued effort to promote diversity in firms acting on behalf of the Trustee. All investment managers working for the Trustee have confirmed to RIEL that they have in place polices to promote workforce diversity. Not all investment managers gather or publish data on ethnic minority employees or employees over 50 years old.