Stockholm (NordSIP) – On the second anniversary of the 2015 Paris Accord, 225 of the largest global investors with over $26.3 trillion in AUM have launched a new collaborative initiative to engage with the largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters in the world to encourage them to rein in emissions and redouble their efforts on climate change.
The investors, which include Northern Trust Asset Management, UBS, Pimco, Amundi, HSBC Global Asset Management and BNP Paribas, have launched Climate Action 100+, a five-year initiative to engage with the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to improve governance on climate change, curb emissions and strengthen climate-related financial disclosures.
“As institutional investors and consistent with our fiduciary duty to our beneficiaries, we will work with the companies in which we invest to ensure they are minimising and disclosing the risks and maximising the opportunities presented by climate change and climate policy,” the Climate Action 100+ statement reads. The initiative builds on a commitment first laid out in the Global Investor Statement on Climate Change in 2015.
Investors must be a member of one of five coordinating partner organisations, sign the Climate Action 100+ statement, and commit to one engagement per year with minimum one company on the focus list.
Oil and gas companies, such as Exxon Mobil and Imperial Oil, are among the companies on the list. Others in the auto industry, such as General Motors and Ford, and in the food and beverage industry, such as PepsiCo and Nestlé, are also listed.
The Climate Action 100+ initiative will entail investor pressure on these companies to:
- Implement a strong governance framework clearly articulating the company board’s accountability and oversight of climate risk;
- Take action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions across their value chains consistent with the Paris Accord goal of limiting global average temperature increases to below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels;
- Provide enhanced corporate disclosure in line with the final recommendations of the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures
“Climate change is a material and systematic risk no long-term investor can afford to ignore,” said Stephanie Maier, Director of Responsible Investment at HSBC Global Asset Management. “To support the full implementation of the Paris Agreement, it is also vital that investors and universal owners across the mainstream investment community do more to ensure major corporate emitters move swiftly to address the risks and pursue the opportunities presented by climate change, providing greater disclosure on how they are aligning with the 2 degrees transition.”
A public report will be released on an annual basis to determine progress.
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