Julian Mund, the Chief Executive of the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association (PLSA), will use his opening speech at the Association’s first-ever digital Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) Conference to highlight some of the early successes following from its A Changing Climate report recommendations.

Speaking to the conference, Mr Mund will explain that, following the October 2020 launch of the report – A Changing Climate: how pension funds can invest for the future – numerous recommendations have already been implemented by the Government and other regulatory bodies to help schemes meet their ESG priorities.

Setting out seven barriers that members told the PLSA were the most important to them, A Changing Climate went on to make 15 recommendations for ways the industry and regulators could help to tackle them.

During his speech, Mr Mund will explain how issues around definitions and communications around responsible investment are being resolved and state that it was a ‘welcome step’ by the UK Government when it announced the formation of its Green Taxonomy Advisory Group. Mr Mund will also go on to say that the alignment of the Chancellor’s roadmap towards adopting TCFD reporting with the PLSA’s own recommendations to address poor-quality climate data and information is also helping shape a more positive future.

Reviewing the first six months of 2021, Mr Mund will explain to delegates how the PLSA has been reacting and responding to a wave of government consultations as well as publishing its voting guidelines.

Looking forward, Mr Mund will acknowledge that while the work to date has been a building block to work from, there is still plenty of work to be done by the industry. Looking at a recent survey of more than 2,000 UK adults, Mr Mund will inform delegates that:

• 80 percent said global warming is an important issue to them.
• 62 percent think that pension schemes and other investors should hold companies to account for impact on climate change.
• 68 percent say that pension schemes should be transparent about whether they invest in a climate-aware way.
• But just one in seven pension savers think schemes are taking any action.

Julian Mund, Chief Executive, PLSA said: “In October last year our report, A Changing Climate, set out the seven barriers our members told us impede climate-aware investing and we made 15 recommendations to tackle them. One of our key policy priorities for 2021 and beyond is seeing these through.

“They included the issue of definitions and communications around responsible investment. We need a common language and approach to clarify definitions, and cut through the wide range of competing standards and definitions. And that’s starting to happen already with the ‘green taxonomy’ announced by the Chancellor in November.

“So too is the alignment of the Chancellor’s roadmap towards adopting TCFD reporting with our own recommendations to address poor-quality climate data and information. We’re also pleased to see the first green gilt coming soon, following our recommendation to improve the supply of responsible investment products.”

“We aim to provide you with help and guidance. We aim to advance the debate and as we did with A Changing Climate. We aim to make sure the massive volume of change in this area is coherent and manageable. And we also want to help you to communicate the difference you make.”