Winning Climate Strategies: Solutions for asset owners from beginner to best practise
Catherine Howarth's presentation in the Finnish Climate Summit, June 2018. Catherine Howarth is the Chief Executive of ShareAction, that coordinates civil society activism to promote responsible investment across Europe.
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Catherine Howarth: Winning Climate Strategies - Solutions for Asset Owners From Beginner to Best Practise
1. Winning Climate Strategies:
Solutions for asset owners from beginner to best practice
PRESENTATION TO FINNISH CLIMATE SUMMIT JUNE 2018
@ShareActionUK | www.shareaction.org
2. Private investment is critical to the Paris Agreement
~$16 trillion of investment is needed between now and 2030 to
deliver on the Paris goals; positively, private invested assets are set to
rise to $145.4 trillion by 2025
In that context, ShareAction seeks to:
❖ Make the climate performance of major investors transparent to all
❖ Support and drive better climate performance by investors
❖ Enable stakeholders to hold investors to account
3. Asset Owners Disclosure Project (AODP)
Rates and ranks the world’s largest institutional investors
on responses to climate-related risks and opportunities
1. Ranking of 80 largest insurance firms – Published May 2018
2. Winning Climate Strategies – Asset owners best practice guide – out today
3. Ranking of 100 public pension funds – In September 2018
4. Ranking of global asset management firms – By early 2019
4. AODP’s new ranking of 80 global insurers
Our assessment methodology follows the framework created by
the Taskforce on Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD):
•Governance of climate risks/opportunities
•Strategy
•Risk management
•Metrics and targets
We assessed and scored both disclosure and actual performance
6. "Winning Climate Strategies" - investor best practice
Based on in-depth interviews with 22 top scoring asset owners in 2017's AODP index
We looked to identify:
1. Common approaches from highly climate-engaged investors
2. Barriers to addressing climate-related risks and opportunities
3. Advice for other asset owners from this leadership group
7. Winning Climate Strategies - common approaches
1. Climate leadership from the top
2. Supportive organisational culture;
committed to learning about climate
3. Strong engagement with stakeholders on
climate
4. TCFD-aligned fund reporting
5. ‘Whole of fund’ approaches
6. Innovation in low-carbon asset allocation
7. Driving climate action from asset managers
8. Prioritising climate-issues in fund risk
management
9. Purposeful company engagement
10. Supportive of public policy on climate
❖ Our 22 top scoring funds vary in size, geography and asset owner type.
❖ This suggests that doing well on climate is possible for all investors
8. Climate Strategies : what are the barriers?
1. Poor quality climate and carbon data
2. Weak or inconsistent regulation & policy
3. Lack of appealing low-carbon investment
opportunities
4. Misaligned time horizons in the investment
chain
5. Traditional mind sets
6. Asset managers lacking skills or interest
7. Confusing language and terminology
9. Winning Climate Strategies – where to start?
1. Get your board and execs educated on
climate change and its implications
2. Work out governance of climate risk
3. Communicate to stakeholders
4. Start now and go step-by-step
5. Develop formalised response
6. Start small with low-carbon investments
7. Focus on your most material climate risks
8. Support climate-related shareholder
resolutions
9. Join collaborative investor initiatives
10. Start by carbon foot-printing your listed
equities
❖ Our 22 leading funds had valuable advice for funds starting their climate journey