More than two-thirds of the world’s largest asset managers have joined the Climate Action 100+ investor group in the lead up to COP26.
A new SquareWell Partners study, The Playing Field: A look at the world’s 50 largest asset managers, looked at the collaborate efforts of 50 assets managers with almost $60trn combined assets under management.
It found 36 (including recently BlackRock and State Street Global Advisors) have joined Climate Action 100+, an investor-led initiative to ensure the world’s largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters take necessary action on climate change.
The recently published Climate Action 100+ Net-Zero Company Benchmark evaluated 159 companies across nine key indicators, including short, medium and long-term emissions reduction targets, decarbonisation strategy and climate governance, finding no company it assessed to have performed at a high level across all indicators, and no company to have fully disclosed how it will achieve its goals to become net zero by 2050 or sooner.
See also: – Climate benchmark finds no full disclosure of net-zero goals at biggest emitting companies
The SquareWell Partners study also found 25 asset managers have joined the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, and nine have joined the Net Zero Asset Managers initiative.
On the reporting side, the study said the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures has seen growing support from investors, with 43 of the top 50 asset managers now being official supporters (up from 32 in 2019 and including T. Rowe Price and Capital Group as recent signatories), confirming its framework and recommendations help them understand how companies are responding to material climate-related risks.
“Only 15 of the investors take climate planning a step further by supporting the CDP Science-Based Targetscampaign, which provides corporate emissions targets deemed consistent with the Paris Agreement goal of 1.5°C or net-zero,” the study said.
