January 2025
28Jan

Dutch Pension Fund Seeks Divestment from BlackRock

A Dutch pension fund is considering cutting ties with BlackRock because of the manager’s departure from the Net-Zero Asset Managers Initiative. PME Pensioenfonds, a pension fund for the metals and technology industry which has more than 620,000 participants, said it was reconsidering the future of its 5 billion euros invested with the manager, according to a memo seen by CIO. The pension fund is among the largest in the Netherlands, with more than 280 billion euros ($294.17 billion) in assets under...

January 28, 2025
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17Jan

Advocates claim high-risk gas assets are liabilities for pensions

Adam Scott believes pension fund managers who invest in gas are in trouble. Particularly, those who think high-risk gas assets can be saved by hydrogen. This might come as a shock because pension fund managers have long seen gas infrastructure as a low-risk investment. Historically, regulated gas assets offered stable returns and seemed to be a safer, lower-carbon option compared to other fossil fuels. But Scott, executive director at Shift Action for Pension Wealth and Planet Health, says these...

January 17, 2025
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16Jan

​Sweden. KPA calls for action on pensions investment in local climate adaptation

KPA Pension, which manages pensions for local authorities, said action needs to be taken to improve the framework for pension funds to invest in climate change preparedness in Sweden, arguing that most scheme members favour their savings being invested in that way. The SEK300bn (€26bn) pension fund, a subsidiary of pensions and insurance group Folksam, published a report on Friday on Sweden’s need to undergo the green climate transition, adapt society to a changing climate and to build civil preparedness...

January 16, 2025
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13Jan

PensionBee Launches New Climate Plan to Help Customers Invest in Line With the Paris Agreement Goals

PensionBee, a leader in the consumer retirement market, has launched its new Climate Plan that sets a clear standard for climate-focused pensions. This plan not only excludes fossil fuel producers but also commits to continually reducing the total intensity of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions produced by companies in the plan by 10% annually. So, even if the global economy uses more carbon over time, the Climate Plan will move in the opposite direction, always using less. Building on the success of...

January 13, 2025
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13Jan

US. Could climate change cost pensions 44 per cent?

Climate change is a complex financial risk. Its immediate impact on weather patterns and the various societal responses to a changing climate will influence GDP growth, inflation and ultimately, financial markets. An inaugural climate report released by Ortec Finance has found that Canadian pension funds are among the funds most vulnerable to climate change, second only to US pensions. Climate risk specialist at Ortec and author of the report Doruk Onal says Canadian pension funds are expected to experience profound...

January 13, 2025
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10Jan

Sustainable Investing

By Lubos Pastor, Robert F. Stambaugh & Lucian A. Taylor We review the literature on sustainable investing, focusing on financial effects. First, we examine the effects of investor tastes on portfolio tilts and asset prices in a simple equilibrium setting. We establish novel connections, including a direct relation between the green portfolio tilt and the greenium. We also relate our framework to prior modeling of divestment. Finally, we review evidence related to the main concepts from our theoretical analysis, including the greenium, green...

January 10, 2025
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10Jan

As US banks leave net-zero, are Canadian banks close behind?

  Canada’s largest banks are reconsidering their involvement in the Net-Zero Banking Alliance (NZBA), as reported by BNN Bloomberg. The alliance, established to promote climate financing, has recently faced several high-profile departures. US banks such as Goldman Sachs, Morgan Stanley, Wells Fargo, Bank of America, Citigroup, and JPMorgan Chase have withdrawn, citing increased Republican criticism of ‘woke’ capitalism and doubts about the effectiveness of voluntary measures in reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Royal Bank of Canada (RBC) and Bank of Montreal (BMO), two of...

January 10, 2025
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09Jan

US. Time to act: The role of pension trustees in reaching net zero

Asset owners, business leaders and pensions funds collectively hold the power to put the global economy on a sustainable footing. Pension funds are in a unique position of both vulnerability and strength: susceptible to the risks of an unsustainable future, but possessing the influence to promote positive outcomes. With just five years until the Paris Agreement’s 2030 deadline for halving carbon emissions, we face the possibility that we will fail to achieve the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (see below) and...

January 9, 2025
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07Jan

Sustainable finance is braced for its toughest year yet

Before most investors had even returned to the office after the Christmas break last week, it became clear that sustainable finance is in for another rough year. On Thursday, Morgan Stanley became the latest big name to abandon the private sector’s main climate group, the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). GFANZ, as it’s more commonly known, was set up to help its 700+ members work out how to develop the right targets, accounting metrics and investment strategies to achieve...

January 7, 2025
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December 2024
13Dec

The Economics of Net Zero Banking

By Adair Morse & Parinitha R. Sastry Banks have voluntarily committed to align their lending portfolios with a net zero path toward a decarbonized economy. In this review, we explore the economic channels for why portfolio decarbonization might be consistent with lender profit maximization. We frame the question by positing that net zero lending may create differential value through the channels of risk and returns, where return topics span profit margins and lending book growth arguments. We then use the lens of...

December 13, 2024
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