Border to Coast Pensions Partnership, the £64bn (€75bn) Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) investment pool, has revealed it has seen surprising improvements in engagement among some US managers that have exited the climate engagement group Climate Action 100+ (CA100+).
Speaking on a panel at the IPE Transition Conference & Awards 2025 event in Brussels this week, Border to Coast’s head of responsible investment, Tim Manuel, said that some US managers are now doing stewardship better after leaving the initiative.
His comments come as an increasing number of managers have left the group amid the politicisation of the climate action debate.
Manuel added that while managers’ exits have raised concerns, the underlying engagement has potentially improved in some cases.
Border to Coast has committed to making its portfolio carbon neutral by 2050.
Manuel joined Border to Coast last September from Aon, where he had worked for 18 years.
“We had several asset managers that we worked with that did exit CA100+, and there were some very difficult conversations.”
While acknowledging the benefits of climate initiatives such as CA100+, Manuel noted that “there is an advantage of seeing the public commitment that managers are making, but that can provide a bit of a shield as well to some extent”.
He added: “We have worked extensively with them [US managers] since they exited, and I think they are doing stewardship better now that they have exited CA100+ because it has attracted so much scrutiny.”
For Manuel, the goal is not just to adopt sound policies but to ensure they result in meaningful climate action and corporate change.
“It’s more about policies and principles, and we’ve got to make sure that follows through into action,” he noted.
Addressing the conference audience, Manuel made the case that stewardship is evolving, with detailed plans becoming more important than initial ambitious commitments.
“No one expected that the net zero plans that were written in 2020 were going to survive to 2050, right?” Manuel added.
Asset owner inaction
The conference panel – Sustainable investment – Where are we now? — debated the current effectiveness of stewardship.
Catherine Howarth, chief executive officer of ShareAction, said asset owners need to do more to meet the current climate challenge.
“Asset owners are still not really in the fight. They are observing,” said Howarth. “They’re talking, they’re thinking, and they’re not yet stepping up.”
She previously said the sector was experiencing a “stewardship recession”.
Panellists also pointed to a shift beyond narrow net zero goals toward broader strategies focused on resilience, competitiveness, and value chains.
Speaking on ESG and financial performance, Adrien Perret, executive director at Fonds de Réserve pour les Retraites (FRR), said: “ESG and financial performance are not opposite, but rather complementary tools. We see ESG and decarbonisation as the proper framework to ensure the long-term applicability of financial performance and its sustainability over time.”
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