Not many other funds out there have asked their members what they think about Responsible Investments, but we did. 92% of our members who took part in our Responsible Investment Forum last year told us that they thought it was important that our Fund had a net zero target. And our Pensions Committee agrees.
The Fund has now agreed a target of getting to net zero by 2045. And whilst 2045 seems a long way off, the target is backed by a science-based plan using data from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), with interim targets to ensure it’s on track.
We’re already ahead of the game - nearly 5 years ahead of target in terms of emission reductions to reach the 2045 goal.
This commitment is part of our long-running efforts to significantly reduce the emissions from the companies in our investment portfolio, while also continuing to invest in green solutions.
But we never lose sight of the need to maintain our strong funding position. When we were crunching the data to set our net zero figure, we worked out that we had reduced emissions from our listed equity portfolio by 74% in the last decade, while growing the value of our investments by 94%.
Download a summary of our net zero approach.
Download the Environment Agency Pension Fund’s policy on climate change.
Download our Decarbonisation Target Summary to see the modelling behind the net zero target.
You also told us that you’d like to see clearer information about the companies that we invest in. This is coming soon, so watch out for some communications coming out in September launching an exciting, engaging and easy to use platform.
If you’re interested in seeing this information now, in it’s current format, you can visit our Investment holdings data page.