‘Not fit for purpose’ was an apt description of most asset managers’ climate strategies at the start of 2020. That assessment, made in January, led my £30bn pension partnership to warn our investment managers that, by failing to show climate progress by 2022, they risked losing their mandates.
How things have changed. Exactly 12 months later, asset managers are facing a different order of pressure from across the industry. In the run-up to the UN’s climate conference (COP26) in November, regulators and governments will be focusing on climate more than ever, and we can expect still more asset owners to follow suit. It all adds up to a new force of ‘creative destruction’ disrupting markets.
