UK pension funds could face legal action over climate risk, ClientEarth warns

ClientEarth has written to 14 of the UK’s biggest pension funds warning they could face legal action unless they properly take account of risks to their investment portfolios posed by climate change.

On Friday the green lawyer organisation wrote to the Shell Contributory Pension Fund, as well as the staff pension schemes of Tesco, Aviva, Lloyds Bank and HBOS, highlighting its “concern that a failure to think strategically about climate change may create risk for beneficiaries”.

“We are concerned that you, as scheme trustees, may be failing to manage the scheme’s investments in a manner consistent with members’ best interests,” the letter states. “In doing so, you are potentially putting members’ retirement outcomes at risk and exposing yourselves to the possibility of legal challenges for breach of your fiduciary duties.”

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