On the go: The £28bn Brunel Pension Partnership, which handles the assets of 10 partner funds with an aggregate size of circa £40bn, has transferred more than £3bn to its new FTSE Russell Paris-aligned benchmark series.
Five partner funds of the Brunel Pension Partnership decided to transfer more than £3bn worth of passive fund allocations to the new series of FTSE Paris-aligned benchmarks, including the Wiltshire County Council Pension Fund, the Oxfordshire County Council Pension Fund, the Environment Agency Pension Fund, the Devon County Council Pension Fund, and the Avon County Council Pension Fund.
“We are delighted that our clients share the urgency of needing new climate solutions in passive funds and have moved so quickly to adopt the new benchmarks,” said David Cox, head of listed markets at Brunel.
“Asset owners and asset managers need to show the same ambition and urgency in harnessing the new benchmarks to put them on the path to net zero.”
Exposure to any given index constituent rises or falls according to several exposure objectives, covering fossil fuel reserves, carbon reserves, green revenues, Transition Pathway Initiative management quality, and TPI carbon performance, as well as forward-looking alignment with Paris goals.
Speaking at the opening of the London Stock Exchange on Tuesday to mark Brunel’s transition to the new Paris-aligned benchmarks, Cox explained that “the benchmarks were built on foundations of EU regulations, but differ from other climate benchmarks because they were built for the future”.
“They can be used for all investors globally and evolve as new information comes about,” he added.
Furthermore, Faith Ward, chief responsible investment officer at Brunel, outlined the pool’s key messages for COP26: “We are asking for governments to raise their ambitions and introduce policies of substance, to co-operate on regulation and initiatives to ensure consistency and to ensure that climate policies are both smart and just.
“Government and industry need better collaboration to enable investors to meet the transition aims. We need the government to make things easier to achieve the climate goals,” she said.
“It might be too optimistic, but what I hope to come out of COP26 is a policy change that affects the economy straight away,” added David Vickers, chief investment officer at Brunel.
This article originally appeared on MandateWire.com
