December 2023
04Dec

Dutch pension fund PMT sells most fossil fuel holdings

Pensioenfonds Metaal & Techniek (PMT) has divested from 40 oil and gas companies, but remains invested in nine companies with “sufficiently convincing plans” for the energy transition and carbon reduction. All of the retained companies are headquartered in Europe. Over the past two years, the pension fund had asked all companies in the oil and gas sector in which it invests to commit to the Paris Agreement and set sufficiently ambitious and substantiated CO2 reduction targets. Forty of those companies could not meet...

December 4, 2023
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01Dec

Australia pension funds call for reforms to encourage green energy investment at home

Australian pension funds called on Friday for the government to enact reforms that would make it easier to invest in domestic renewable energy projects and warned that without action investors would opt for more compelling overseas projects. Australia's electricity transmission network, batteries and sustainable aviation fuel are three areas where simplified planning, subsidised finance and other regulatory changes could catalyse investment, according to a report released by eight major pension funds. Changes could quickly unlock A$4 billion ($2.7 billion) worth of...

December 1, 2023
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November 2023
30Nov

UK. Stop funding fossil fuels, ‘The Crown’ star urges pensions in ad

It's a curious combination: celebrities and pension funds. Rarely do the two mix, but when they do, they often make the news. A new advert, launched earlier this week, featuring Oscar-winning actress Olivia Colman, called on UK pension members to lobby their funds to cut fossil fuels investments. “The cash from your pensions has helped us dig, drill and destroy more of the planet than ever before,” she says in the advert. Posted on YouTube and the group’s website, among other platforms,...

November 30, 2023
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24Nov

ESG and Public Pension Investing in 2023: A Year-To-Date Recap and Analysis

By Joshua Lichtenstein, Michael Littenberg & Reagan Haas Since 2021, Ropes & Gray has been actively tracking the various approaches states have taken on how or whether environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors should be applied to the investment decisions for public retirement systems. States have used legislative, administrative and enforcement mechanisms to address this area, which has been complemented by Congressional Republicans’ various attempts to shine a spotlight on ESG in recent months. Judging by the significant uptick in...

November 24, 2023
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17Nov

Knowledge Of ESG, Integration and Greenwashing Remains Low

Determining how best to incorporate environmental, social and governance factors across the investment portfolio continues to be a challenge for institutional investors, said Bonnie Treichel, founder and chief solutions officer at Endeavor Retirement, during the “Surveying the Landscape” session of CIO’s ESG livestream this month. Not Just a Label “How do people really understand this?” Treichel asked. “It’s really hard, because a lot of times, I’ll ask the question about ESG and an investment lineup, and the perspective that I hear...

November 17, 2023
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14Nov

UK. ESG: Biodiversity And Nature Risks For Pension Schemes

While climate risk has increasingly been at the top of the agenda for trustees in recent years, biodiversity and nature risk has occasionally been overlooked, despite the serious financial implications stemming from these issues. The World Economic Forum's Global Risk Report 2023 cited "biodiversity loss and ecosystem collapse" as the fourth most significant global risk over the next ten years. In light of this, pension regulators are focusing their attention on biodiversity risk management.  A guide recently produced by...

November 14, 2023
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14Nov

Austrian pension funds to lose 7.5% in asset value due to climate risks

The value of assets in the portfolios of Austrian pension funds would decrease by approximately 7.5% in the event of an unexpected increase of the price of CO2 emissions through additional taxes to make fossil fuel investments less attractive, according to a stress test conducted this year by the by Austria’s Financial Market Authority (FMA). This is an improvement from last year’s test showing a 10% loss in asset value. Read also German government drafts law to reform second pillar pension system This year’s...

November 14, 2023
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13Nov

UK pension funds step in to build affordable homes

The UK’s pension funds are increasingly stepping in to build affordable homes as the housing crisis worsens. Pension Insurance Corporation (PIC), a specialist insurer of defined benefit pension schemes, is the latest to enter the market. It is building 125 affordable homes in Kingston upon Thames, south-west London, in partnership with the developer London Square and its affordable housing subsidiary, Square Roots The £50m project, which is due to be completed by November 2025, is backed by a £4.9m grant from the...

November 13, 2023
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09Nov

UK pensions minister urged to encourage schemes to invest in sustainability

LCP and Pensions for Purpose have written an open letter to UK pensions minister Laura Trott calling for investment in social and environmental sustainability and for intergenerational inequality to be at the heart of planned pension reforms. In July’s Mansion House speech, the chancellor of the exchequer Jeremy Hunt introduced a number of measures aimed at unlocking the growth potential of UK defined benefit (DB) schemes. LCP and Pensions for Purpose are urging the government to encourage pension schemes to invest more in areas...

November 9, 2023
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03Nov

2022 Future Focus Survey: ESG and sustainable investing trends in Europe

By J.P. Morgan Asset Management   While allocations to sustainable investing strategies continue to grow, the average allocation across Europe is relatively low, at 23%. Even in Finland, which tops the table, the average allocation is only 33%. It is clear that even in the region where sustainable investing is most popular, broad ESG adoption is still at the early part of its journey.* Interestingly, there is far more divergence among the investors within countries than between them. Therefore, we urge investors to focus on the...

November 3, 2023
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