April 2024
19Apr

US. House committee advances resolution to overturn SEC climate rule along party lines

Republicans on the House Financial Services Committee advanced a resolution to overturn the SEC’s climate disclosure rule, in addition to advancing several other resolutions aimed at rolling back various Biden administration rule-making. “Let us make no mistake, the commission finalized this rule despite no clear authorization from Congress,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga, R-Mich., who introduced the resolution to overturn the SEC’s climate rule, at the markup April 17. The Congressional Review Act allows Congress to disapprove, by a simple majority vote, a final...

April 19, 2024
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19Apr

UK. How TPR rates trustees on climate action

Analysis by the Pensions Regulator (TPR) has found that more than 60% of climate reports by pension schemes had some form of net zero goal with a target date of 2050 or earlier. Schemes with more than £1bn in assets under management have been required to publish climate reports since 2022. TPR has analysed a selection of 30 reports and published its findings last week to help raise standards across industry. More than 60% of TPR’s sample had some form of...

April 19, 2024
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12Apr

UK. TPR finds trustees are taking action on climate risks and opportunities

Pension trustees are acting to address climate risks and opportunities, with more than 60 per cent of pension schemes included in The Pensions Regulator’s (TPR) latest review having some form of net-zero goal with a target date of 2050 or earlier. Following the introduction of new climate-related disclosures for schemes with more than £1bn in assets under management in 2022, TPR undertook an analysis of a selection of reports in an effort to help raise standards across the industry. This review...

April 12, 2024
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11Apr

UK. Public demands government action on pensions and climate

According to a poll by responsible investment organisations ShareAction, Make My Money Matter and Finance Innovation Lab, 77% of people believe the government should do more to ensure pension holders have additional retirement savings, while 65% think ministers should encourage pension funds to tackle climate change. The organisations unveiled a five-point plan, Better pensions for all and a sustainable, productive economy: Proposals for reform, which they said would prevent the UK from “sleepwalking” into a pensions crisis. It includes increasing the...

April 11, 2024
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10Apr

Caisse races toward sustainability targets but says company data to measure emissions from investments is still lacking

The Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec is reaching its targets to cut carbon emissions from its $434-billion investment portfolio years ahead of schedule, but much of the hardest work is still to come. The Montreal-based pension fund manager said in an annual sustainability report released Wednesday that it has cut the intensity of carbon emissions from its investment portfolio by 59 per cent since 2017. That puts it just shy of a 60-per-cent reduction it aims to achieve...

April 10, 2024
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09Apr

Financial sector faces challenges amid climate crisis

Many of us have life insurance or retirement funds: we may allocate a portion of our salary to them each month. But we rarely know how our money is being invested. We simply trust that, when the time comes, the resources will be available to us and that the financial system will have invested our savings wisely. Still, we don’t necessarily know precisely where our money is being invested, nor do we know what regulatory framework financial institutions are operating under. At...

April 9, 2024
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05Apr

The Effects of Environmental Distress on Labor Markets: Evidence from Brazil

By Danae Hernandez-Cortes & Sophie Mathes This article documents how environmental distress affects individual-level labor market outcomes in Latin America’s largest economy. We collect data on a broad range of environmental distress events namely heat waves, floods, fires, and droughts, and combine these with uniquely rich administrative information covering the universe of formal employment in Brazil from 2003 to 2017. We find heterogeneous labor effects in response to environmental distress. We find that heat waves disrupt employment, increasing retirement rates...

April 5, 2024
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04Apr

US. NYC Pensions Reach Deal With RBC to Publish Green-Funding Ratio

New York City retirement plans reached an agreement with Royal Bank of Canada for the lender to disclose how much financing it provides for clean-energy projects relative to fossil fuels. Canada’s largest bank is the third financial giant to agree to begin disclosing the ratio after New York Comptroller Brad Lander and the city’s public-pension boards filed shareholder resolutions with six banks in January. The proposal was set to be voted upon at Toronto-based Royal Bank’s annual meeting next week. “We’re...

April 4, 2024
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04Apr

UK. The Pensions Regulator unveils fresh 2030 climate targets

UK regulator plans to focus on cutting gas, electricity, business travel, water and waste emissions in short term on course to achieving net zero across its operations and supply chain by 2050 The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has unveiled a suite of fresh climate targets, including a goal to slash its operational greenhouse gas emissions by 90 per cent by the end of the decade compared to 2017/18 levels. The UK regulator, which set out its first climate change strategy three years...

April 4, 2024
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March 2024
27Mar

UK. Data shows public concern about pensions adequacy and climate change

Most of the public want the government to do more to address pensions adequacy and to ensure the industry is tackling the climate crisis, research from ShareAction, Make My Money Matter and Finance Innovation Lab finds. The research from the responsible investment organisations – which polled 2,000 UK adults this month – found three quarters (77%) of the public were concerned about adequacy, while two thirds (65%) wanted the pensions industry to address climate change. As part of its work, the group put...

March 27, 2024
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