October 2021

U.K. pensions will be greener and DC plans more consolidated, minister says

U.K. pension funds are on a journey to be "safer, better and greener," and defined contribution plans are headed for consolidation, U.K. Minister for Pensions and Financial Inclusion Guy Opperman said Tuesday at the P&I World Pension Summit in The Hague. Last year, the U.K. was the first G-7 country to commit to mandatory climate disclosures under the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures, and pension funds will have to disclose how climate change impacts their investment portfolios as part...

Sustainable investment ‘rebooting’ Europe’s private markets, research finds

The rise in demand for sustainable investments is driving a “structural reboot” of private market investing in Europe, with environmental, social and governance funds on track to account for up to two-fifths of the industry’s assets in just a few years. According to research from PwC, ESG private market assets could hit between €775.7bn and €1.2tn by 2025, up from €253bn in 2020, as regulation and client demand force an overhaul of private equity, real estate, infrastructure and private debt...

AFM: Dutch pension funds urged to speed up SFDR implementation

Dutch pension funds must speed up the implementation of the Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR), according to financial market regulator AFM. But for the time being, compliance will not yet rigidly be enforced, said AFM director Laura van Geest. “The pension sector is less far in implementing the SFDR than the asset management sector since many pension funds have chosen to [temporarily] opt-out of the SFDR,” Van Geest said, speaking at the annual congress of trade publication Pensioen Pro. Most of...

Sustainability agreements and antitrust – three criteria to distinguish beneficial cooperation from greenwashing

By Maurits Dolmans This paper discusses European competition law as it applies to agreements between market players to reduce, eliminate, or compensate for greenhouse gas emissions. It places these in an economic context, discusses the relevant provisions of the European treaties and applicable case law of the European Court of Justice. It identifies three broad criteria for the non-application of the prohibition of restrictive agreements, or exemption, to sustainability agreements. Source: SSRN 239 views

Values at Work: Sustainable Investing and ESG Reporting

By Daniel C. Esty, Todd Cort Sustainable investing is a rapidly growing and evolving field. With investors expressing ever greater interest in environmental, social, and governance (ESG) metrics and reporting, companies face a sustainability imperative and the need to remake their business models to respond to an array of pressing issues including climate change, air and water pollution, racial justice, workplace diversity, economic inequality, privacy, corporate integrity, and good governance. From equities to fixed income and from private equity to...

September 2021

Should regulators take the lead on ESG in pensions?

The extent to which financial regulators should get involved in setting environmental, social and governance requirements is a hot topic, with some experts arguing that involvement could stifle innovation. In a recent twitter poll, Pensions Expert asked its readers whether or not regulators should take the lead on ESG within asset management. The result reflected how divisive the issue is in the industry. The poll revealed 53.6 per cent of respondents felt regulators should intervene to meet demand for standardisation across...

¿Cómo pueden las bolsas de valores crecer las finanzas verdes?

Por SSE En 2015, líderes mundiales se reunieron en París y acordaron objetivos ambiciosos para evitar los peores efectos del cambio climático. Ese mismo año, países alrededor del mundo pactaron los Objetivos de Desarrollo Sostenible (ODS) de las Naciones Unidas, los cuales incluyen un claro llamamiento a tomar acciones sobre el cambio climático. Cumplir con estos objetivos globales requerirá una transición hacia mercados financieros verdes y sostenibles. Para poder crear nuevas formas de finanzas verdes y otras combinadas, como se...

UK. The trillions in our pension pots could be key to tackling the climate crisis

By Richard Curtis Someone said something really striking to me the other day – that weather used to be the last thing on the news, but now it’s the first. And it’s not good news. Fire, floods, drought – climate change in terrible and obvious action. It made me think of something I’ve been increasingly obsessed by – unexpectedly – which is pensions. Pensions used to be the last thing on our minds, certainly not something to talk about at...

El Libro Blanco de la Inversión de Impacto

Por Icíar Carmen Jiménez Barandalla La inversión de impacto ofrece la posibilidad a los inversores de contribuir con sus recursos a la solución de los problemas de la sociedad y el medioambiente, sin tener que renunciar a la obtención de rentabilidad. Es, por tanto, una vía de participación que ofrecen los mercados financieros a aquellos inversores dispuestos a asumir su responsabilidad en la mejora de los conflictos sociales y medioambientales. Ello exige fijar unos objetivos en la gestión de las...

Canada’s third-largest pension fund beefs ups plan to cut carbon emissions

Ontario Teachers’ Pension Plan Board (OTPP), Canada’s third-largest pension fund, announced on Thursday new interim targets to cut the carbon emissions intensity of its portfolio as part of a plan to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. OTPP, which manages C$227.7 billion ($180.11 billion) in assets, plans to reduce emissions intensity by 45% by 2025 and 67% by 2030, from 2019 levels. Fellow pension fund Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec also has a net-zero target by 2050, but environmental campaigners...