AXA IM publishes its 2020 climate strategy report

At AXA IM, we are deeply committed to tackling the impact of climate-related risks and as a large investor we have a clear role to play in limiting global warming. We believe it is our duty to provide the relevant expertise to help our clients better understand climate change and how it may impact their portfolios, and then to support them to adapt their investment decisions accordingly. As shareholders, it is also our responsibility to engage with companies to encourage them to not only take better care of the environment, but also to help improve public health and working conditions.

Our Taskforce for Climate-related Financial Disclosure (TCFD) Report outlines our innovations in climate strategy, investment and reporting, as well as our focus on generating positive and measurable impact in private and listed markets.

In response to the publication of the report, Gerald Harlin, Executive Chairman at AXA Investment Managers, said:

“The COVID-19 outbreak has reminded us all just how fragile the world is, but equally it has highlighted the importance of global cooperation. In time the recovery will come, and as it does, we hope the lessons learned will help us drive a unified response to the relentless threat of climate change. It is crucial for investors, asset managers and the entire financial industry to demonstrate transparency – to operate by common standards as we strive towards common goals. This report feeds into that process.

“AXA Investment Managers has spent more than 20 years delivering responsible investment solutions for clients. It has become an integral part of our business, guiding and defining our investment approach as we respond to the risks and opportunities presented by environmental, social and governance factors. It is our stated ambition to be one of the world’s leading responsible investors – and we will be at the heart of plans by our parent company, AXA Group, to place €24bn in verified green investments by 2023.

“We want to be an industry leader in this decade of transition to a low-carbon world. That’s why we have played a vigorous role in expanding the Green Bonds market, and why we have pushed our industry to establish Transition Bonds which can put carbon-intensive industries and companies on a new, eco-friendly path. We are working on other innovations too. This report details the encouraging results of our response to a challenge set by the TCFD – to develop a method to measure the temperature impact of portfolios. Our 2020 work in this field reveals that AXA IM’s corporate and sovereign assets under management display a “Warming Potential” of 2.8°C, well below the 3.5°c Warming Potential of the benchmarks. In 2020 we continue to work to ensure we can quantify and report on climate impacts in a robust manner, and further incorporate those metrics in investment decisions.

“But we need to go further – progress must be constant – and so we have committed to exit all coal investments in OECD countries by the end of this decade, and throughout the rest of the world by 2040. We may well be able to forge a ‘green recovery’ from the COVID-19 crisis, but that will only translate into a sustainable future through the work of transparent, committed and long-term investors. It is in that spirit that AXA IM has detailed its work in this report, and it is in that spirit that we pledge to enhance and accelerate our leadership in the climate transition.”