Climate Transition Plans

2022 was a year of intense work for those of us involved in the definition of the actions to support our commitments to the science of climate and the goals of the Paris Agreement.

Since we published our climate commitments in 2021 (view our TCFD-aligned Climate Report 2021) via the Net Zero Asset Manager Initiative, part of Race to Zero, we have been busy translating these ambitions into the elements of a plan to ensure that our actions contribute to and prepare for a global transition towards a low emissions future. While planning we were also doing. In 2022, we ratcheted up our net zero engagement strategy, upgraded our climate tools for RLAM’s fund managers and developed more transition investment products.

Externally, we have looked for opportunities to collaborate with the industry to help drive change and in particular to input into climate transition plan standards.  During 2022, we supported the Transition Plan Taskforce (TPT), the Climate Financial Risk Forum, and the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero and the International Sustainability Standards Board (ISSB). The four groups of experts are focused on providing guidelines for effective transition plans that can deliver impact in the real economy.

In parallel to these outward-focused activities, during 2022 RLAM worked with internal and external  experts to design and develop our own climate transition plan, effectively creating a roadmap for action. This exercise uncovered how much work we still need to undertake to fulfil our climate commitments, what it means to our business, our industry, and the products and services we deliver and design for our clients. The core of the recommendations focused on the necessary additional efforts to further strengthen our engagement activity while increasing our development of climate-aware investment strategies.

Over the next few months, we will be working on following these recommendations. This work will follow the 8th November TPT 2022 guidelines, and any additional proposals to be published in 2023 and beyond. We will focus on further building the architecture underpinning our ambition, accountabilities and actions to address material risks, leverage opportunities and control for interdependencies with the natural environment, and society leveraging our longstanding work around Just Transition.

Read our Climate Transition Journey.

To learn more about our work supporting our clients with our climate transition action plans, please contact ESG@rlam.co.uk.

This is a financial promotion and is not investment advice. The views expressed are those of the author at the date of publication unless otherwise indicated, which are subject to change, and is not investment advice.