Church Commissioners urge governments to enact policies supporting 1.5°C pathway

The UK’s Church Commissioners, which manages the Church of England’s endowment fund, has called for governments to enact policies that would support aligning portfolios to a 1.5°C pathway, and establish functional carbon markets, ahead of this year’s COP29.

In a video message posted on LinkedIn, Church Commissioners’ head of responsible investment Olga Hancock called on policymakers to take concrete action in this year’s climate summit, while taking a ‘tongue in cheek’ swipe at the BBC for a fictional depiction of the Church Commissioners in the TV show Industry.

Speaking from a hotel room in Azerbaijan, Hancock said: “I’ve just arrived in Azerbaijan for COP29 which is very exciting. But before I say anything further on that, I have a short message to the BBC and HBO, who recently ran an episode in their wonderful series Industry all about the Church Commissioners turning up to COP staying in a luxury hotel and schmoozing with asset managers.”

Gesturing around her hotel room, Hancock added: “As you’ll see, that’s not what’s happened. I’m here on behalf of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) policy work stream to engage with governments and stakeholders and represent the 88 asset owners with £9.5trn asset under management who want to align their portfolios with a 1.5°C pathway.”

Hancock’s comments come at a time of increased focus on increasing finance for real-economy decarbonisation.

COP29 goals

According to Hancock, the NZAOA wants to see countries submit ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions (NDCs) in line with the 1.5°C pathway, as well as address the unresolved issues in relation to Article 6 of the Paris Agreement for a functional carbon market.

Furthermore, Hancock added the group wanted the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCC) to send clear signals to the private sector that align incentives for investment in developing countries with the scaling and mobilisation of finance for adaptation and mitigation.

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