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 350 members, mainly pension funds and asset managers, across 23 countries, with over €51 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.

    Through IIGCC, the Trustee was invited by The Investor Agenda to sign this year’s Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis. The Statement was prepared jointly by the founding partners of The Investor Agenda: Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), Ceres, Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), IIGCC, Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) and United Nations Environment Partnership – Finance Initiative (UNEP FI). The Investor Agenda is focussed on the role of governments in putting in place clear, long-term and effective policies to support investment into climate resilience and mitigation in order to achieve stated climate goals.

  • Climate Action 100+

    The Trustee is a signatory of the Climate Action 100+ pledge. Climate Action 100+ is made up of 700 global investors who are responsible for more than $68 trillion in assets under management. It has become the largest ever global investor engagement initiative on climate change, with growing influence and impact. Since its launch, Climate Action 100+ has experienced over 170% growth in investor participation. Investors working through the initiative are now engaged across 33 markets and represent over 50% of all global assets under management. Investors are engaging with 166 of the world’s biggest listed corporate emitters on a broad common agenda seeking commitments from boards and senior management to:

    • Implement a strong governance framework which clearly articulates the board’s accountability and oversight of climate change risk – 92% of focus companies now have some level of executive oversight, and 75% of companies have now committed to net zero by 2050;
    • Take action to reduce GHG emissions across the value chain, consistent with the Paris Agreement’s goal of limiting global average temperature increase to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels; and
    • Provide enhanced corporate disclosure in line with the final recommendations of the Task Force on Climate‑related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) – 91% of focus companies have now aligned with TCFD recommendations, either by supporting the TCFD principles or by employing climate scenario planning.

  • Policy

    The Department for Work and Pensions (DWP) consulted on proposed changes to the Occupational Pension Schemes (Climate Change Governance and Reporting) Regulations 2021 to require trustees subject to those Regulations, to calculate and disclose a portfolio alignment metric describing the extent to which their investments are aligned with the goal of limiting the increase in the global average temperature to 1.5°C above pre-industrial levels. A response to the consultation was prepared by the IIGCC on behalf of its members. The Occupational Pension Schemes (Climate Change Governance and Reporting) (Amendment, Modification and Transitional Provision) Regulations 2022 came into effect on 1 October 2022 and prescribe additional requirements for the Fund’s climate reporting.

  • Investment managers

    All investment managers, except one, 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.

  • Workforce diversity

    RIEL is committed to monitoring diversity in its investment managers and does so in order 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.