Category: Private markets

A group of UK asset owners has penned a letter to asset managers saying “ESG 1.0 for beginners requires you to vote for [climate] resolutions”. Foundations including Friends Provident, Lankelly Chase and the Polden-Puckham Charitable Foundation partnered with PensionsBee and Jesuits in Britain to write: “How can any asset manager claim to support the Paris climate agreement and be engaging high risk sectors like oil and gas to align, and then vote against what they are engaging for?” and warning that “asset manager ESG claims are not always aligned with basic ESG practice”. “Following all the hype of the past year, with some of the world’s largest publicly listed investment banks entering the ESG market and astonishing AUMs being reported as having integrated ESG, we asset owners are watching this year’s AGM season with great interest,” the investors said.

The UK University Superannuation Scheme - the pension fund for university employee…