APG is no longer invested in coal and tar sand companies, delivering on objectives set by its Dutch pension fund clients ABP, BfpBouw and SPW.

ABP, the civil service scheme, last year announced the phase-out by 2025 of companies that generate more than 30% and 20% of their revenues from coal and tar sands, respectively. BfpBouw and SPW recently also included this goal in their policies, APG said.

At the end of 2020, the pension asset manager still had nearly €400m invested in these companies on behalf of its pension fund clients, it said.

This year it sold its stakes in 14 coal and tar sand companies, including Enbridge, Suncor Energy and Whitehaven Coal.

Havering, Lewisham seed London CIV Paris-aligned index fund

Two of the local authority pension funds served by the asset pooling company London CIV have allocated a combined £520m to an index fund targeting alignment with the 1.5°C goal of the Paris climate change accord.

The seed investment for the fund comes from the London boroughs of Havering and Lewisham.

The objective of the fund, which is being managed by State Street Global Advisors, is to track the performance of the S&P Developed Ex-Korea LargeMidCap Net-Zero 2050 Paris-Aligned ESG Index (GBP), which aims to meet the requirements of the EU Paris-aligned Benchmark standard.

Jacqueline Amy Jackson, head of responsible investment at London CIV, said the launch of the fund, which has been named the Passive Equity Progressive Paris Aligned Fund, took the pool’s assets under management to £1.9bn.

“PEPPA will not only play a critical role in meeting our ambitious net zero targets, but it will also support our duty as investors to finance the low-carbon transition.

London CIV has said it is committed to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2040 for its investment portfolio.

Moody’s launches ‘temperature alignment data’

Moody’s ESG Solutions has launched a data service that investors and lenders can use to quantify and monitor corporate emissions targets and the temperature alignment of their portfolios.

‘Temperature Alignment Data’ covers 4,400 of the largest companies globally and will be expanded over time, the Moody’s firm said.

Findings from the new dataset include that 42% of the companies have set emissions targets, but 3% of the 4,400 have targets aligned with achieving 1.5°C by 2050, and that the average implied temperature rise among the assessed companies is 2.9°C.

The company said that several trade-offs and judgement calls must be made in the development of portfolio alignment methodologies, as detailed by the Portfolio Alignment Team’s report, but that while different approaches had different strengths and limitations, “there is an opportunity to leverage temperature alignment datasets to provide meaningful insights into investment portfolios’ contribution to the journey to net zero”.

“Understanding the details of a specific approach will enable the most meaningful use of that dataset to inform risk management and portfolio decision-making,” it said.

More about Moody’s ESG Solutions’ approach and findings can be found here.

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