February 2020

03Feb

Netherlands’ $515 billion pension fund to accelerate cuts to fossil fuel investments

The Netherlands’ biggest pension fund, ABP, said on Monday it aims to reduce the carbon footprint of its asset portfolio by 40% from 2015 levels by 2025. ABP, which already set a target to cut the carbon footprint of its assets by 25% from 2015 levels by this year, follows moves by other leading funds - notably Norway’s $1.1 trillion sovereign wealth fund - to divest heavy polluting energy companies from its portfolio. ABP manages 465 billion euros ($515 billion) in...

February 3, 2020
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January 2020

30Jan

US. New York State pension fund puts 27 coal companies under review

New York state’s top pension fund official said it was reviewing whether to divest from 27 coal companies and could make decisions on $98 million in holdings within two months. The reviews by the third-largest U.S. state pension system, with $211 billion under management, could set the tone for other retirement plans facing public concerns about climate change. New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli in an interview on Tuesday said his office began reaching out several weeks ago to...

January 30, 2020
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27Jan

UK Pension Fund Brunel to Firms, Asset Managers: Tackle Climate or We’ll Drop You

Companies and asset managers must show progress towards climate goals by 2022, Brunel Pension Partnership, one of Britain's biggest pension fund managers, said on Monday, or the fund will withdraw its investment. Policymakers such as outgoing Bank of England Governor Mark Carney are pushing investors to do more to ensure their portfolio choices help to meet the 2015 Paris Agreement to combat climate change, by limiting warming to well below 2 degrees Celsius, preferably to 1.5C. Brunel, which manages...

January 27, 2020
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24Jan

New York City Takes ‘Major US. Next Step’ on Fossil Fuel Divestments

Meketa Investment Group has been selected to evaluate options and develop a prudent divestment strategy from fossil fuel companies in alignment with the fiduciary duties for New York City’s largest pension funds, the city’s mayor and comptroller announced. “While the Trump administration fails to address global warming as the crisis it is, New York City is taking action,” said Mayor Bill de Blasio. “We are dedicated to delivering what we owe to our children and grandchildren, which is why...

January 24, 2020
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21Jan

UK ‘leading’ European market for ESG investments

The UK is the 'leading European market' for environmental, social and governance (ESG)-related investments, with £6,439bn assets under management, according to joint research by Association of Luxembourg Fund Industry (ALFI) and PwC Luxembourg. The joint report, Beyond their Borders: Evolution of foreign investments by pension funds, stipulated that European managers were taking the lead in applying ESG criteria to investments, with them expecting to observe 9.3 per cent growth from 2017 to 2025. The UK meanwhile is expected to...

January 21, 2020
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15Jan

BlackRock CEO Larry Fink puts climate change at center of megafund’s investment strategy

BlackRock Inc. will ditch investments with high sustainability-related risk as climate concerns drive a sweeping change in the way the world’s largest asset manager invests its $7 trillion in assets. “Climate change has become a defining factor in companies’ long-term prospects,” Chief Executive Officer Larry Fink wrote in his annual letter to corporate executives on Tuesday. “Awareness is rapidly changing, and I believe we are on the edge of a fundamental reshaping of finance.” Fink is tackling the subject...

January 15, 2020
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10Jan

Sustainable Investing in Equilibrium

By: Lubos Pastor, Robert F. Stambaugh, Lucian A. Taylor We present a model of investing based on environmental, social, and governance (ESG) criteria. In equilibrium, green assets have negative alphas, whereas brown assets have positive alphas. The ESG investment industry is at its largest, and the alphas of ESG-motivated investors are at their lowest, when there is large dispersion in investors' ESG preferences. When this dispersion shrinks, so does the ESG industry, even if all investors' ESG preferences are strong....

January 10, 2020
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09Jan

La Unión Europea y América Latina y el Caribe: Inversiones para el crecimiento, la inclusión social y la sostenibilidad ambiental

Por Economic Commission for Latin America and the Caribbean (ECLAC) United Nations El presente documento es una contribución de la Comisión Económica para América Latina y el Caribe (CEPAL) al proceso de preparación de la Cumbre de Jefes de Estado y de Gobierno de la Comunidad de Estados Latinoamericanos y Caribeños (CELAC) y la Unión Europea (UE), que se celebrará en Santiago los días 26 y 27 de enero de 2013. Ofrece una perspectiva amplia e informada de las principales...

January 9, 2020
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07Jan

ESG future-proofing can help to defy market risks

The European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (Eiopa) found in its most recent stress tests of European pension funds that sustainable investments would help them to withstand an adverse scenario. The 2019 occupational pensions stress test assessed the resilience of the European pension sector to identify areas of weakness and discuss possible preventive measures. Eiopa is part of the European System of Financial Supervision and supports the stability of the financial system, the transparency of markets and financial products...

January 7, 2020
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07Jan

Beyond green ambitions

By Liam Kennedy Europe has lofty ambitions as it positions the European Green Deal as Europe’s growth plan for the coming decade and beyond. There is much to do to promote sustainability in Europe and the EU can undoubtedly blaze a trail. But the incoming Commission will also need to maintain its focus on the Capital Markets Union (CMU), the flagship economic policy of the previous Commission. One element of the CMU as announced in 2014 was indeed to foster...

January 7, 2020
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