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 30 billion pounds ($39 billion) in assets for 10 local government schemes, said in its first climate policy it was aiming to influence companies’ and investment managers’ behaviour.

“Climate change presents an immediate systemic and material risk to the ecological, societal and financial stability of every economy and country on the planet,” the policy document said.

“It is therefore a strategic investment priority for us.”

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