The heads of PensionDanmark, AXA and the United Nations (UN) pension fund have been elected to steer the next phase of the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA).
According to the body’s website, Peter Stensgaard Moerch, the chief executive officer of PensionDanmark, Jean-Baptiste Tricot, the chief investment officer for AXA Group, and Toru Shindo, CIO at the UN Joint Staff Pension Fund, are among the nine members of its updated steering group.
Josselin Kalifa, the CIO of Caisse des Dépôts’ asset management division, Cambria Allen-Ratzlaff, the interim CEO of the Principles for Responsible Investment, Andy Hendren, CEO of Wespath, and Celiwe Ross, Old Mutual’s director of group strategy and sustainability, have also been appointed.
Eric Usher, the head of the UN Environment Programme’s Finance Initiative, is the only non-investor on the group, and Shinichiro Kashima, the chief sustainability officer for Nippon Life Insurance Company, will join on an interim basis.
The steering committee will oversee the next phase of NZAOA, which provides best practice guidance and technical support for around 90 asset owners with a commitment to align their portfolios with net-zero by no later than 2050.
The group is slated to publish its next update on how to set credible targets in March.
NZAOA was the first of a set of subgroups under the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, which also included equivalent versions for asset managers, insurers, banks and service providers.
Currently, NZAOA is the only one of the groups still intact, after a campaign by US lawmakers to shut down collaborative initiatives seen to pressure firms to move away from fossil fuels and polluting activities.
NZFSPA, NZAM steps
Today, the Net Zero Financial Service Providers Alliance (NZFSPA) announced it was shutting down.
In a statement, the PRI-run body said it was “reorganising, with stock exchanges, research and data providers, index providers and auditors pursuing their activities independently of the initiative”.
It did not give a clear reason for the decision, but said that research, data and index-focused members could stay on top of investor expectations by participating in PRI’s other climate workstreams.
Stock-exchange members, which had tripled during NZFSPA’s lifetime, would be moved over to a project run by the UN Sustainable Stock Exchange initiative.
Legal threats from US Republicans prompted the Net Zero Insurance Alliance to close down in 2024, and the Net Zero Banking Alliance followed suit a year later.
The Net Zero Asset Managers (NZAM) initiative was also suspended in early 2025, announcing a revised and weakened set of requirements for its members in October.
A consultation on its proposed new Commitment Statement will close tomorrow, with an official update expected next month.
Some asset manager decisions on their NZAM membership plan have begun to come through, with Royal London, for example, yesterday announcing that it reaffirmed its membership, “recognising the updated framework allows for a more flexible and globally applicable foundation for climate‑aligned investing”.
The asset manager said it would pursue an “NZAM+ strategy, maintaining the ambition and integrity of our existing climate commitments even where elements of the updated NZAM framework provide greater discretion”.
