Japan’s GPIF, World’s Largest Pension Fund, Joins U.S., U.K. Funds to Adopt Sustainability Practices
- Pension funds representing about $2 trillion in assets under management are committing to sustainability investing
- The move brings some of the world’s largest asset owners into the ESG movement, joining fund managers, companies and governments
- Pension funds’ ESG commitment highlights focus on the long term even during the current market meltdown due to coronavirus
Three of the world’s largest pension funds are taking a $2 trillion stand in favor of sustainability investing.
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The leaders of Japan’s Government Pension Investment Fund, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the U.K.’s USS Investment Management Ltd. say that their “multidecade framework” requires them to invest with sustainability and social impact because, after all, retirement funds by their very nature are playing a long game.
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Ignoring issues such as climate change to maximize short-term returns would create “potentially catastrophic systemic risks” to their portfolios, the heads of the funds said in a statemen.
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They cited a figure from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2018 report that indicates climate change alone may destroy $69 trillion in global economic wealth by 2100.
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