Partner Insight: Royal London Asset Management and select partners have been engaging on just transition since 2019 and have focused our engagement specifically on three sectors – utilities, social housing and banks
Our engagement with banks begun in 2022 with our attendance and speaking at the AGMs of Barclays, Lloyds Banking Group, NatWest, and HSBC – where we asked whether they would consider integrating just transition throughout their climate transition plans.
Since then, we have met with these four banks on multiple occasions, working with them to shape the integration of just transition in their operations and products and services, and tracking the progression of their plans. For more information on our engagement and the progress we have observed on just transition, please see our current and archived Stewardship and Responsible Investment Reports. Through this long-standing dialogue we have refined our understanding to better account for the complexities of the sector. We were also invited to support the External Advisory Board of the International Labor Organization (ILO) and United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative (UNEP FI) Just Transition Finance Project. In parallel we have contributed to the work that the Transition Pathway Taskforce (TPT) developed around the inclusion of just transition in climate transition plans.
Royal London Asset Management, working collaboratively with Borders to Coast Pensions Partnership and Friends Provident Foundation, have now written Investor Expectations for the Banking sector on Just Transition. This expands our engagement programme, providing banks with clear and public expectations and enabling other investors to assess and engage with banks on their performance on just transition. The expectations, which can be read below, provide a high-level guide on why banks should care, and examples of how we think it can be integrated into credible climate transition plans.
Carlota Gracia-Manas, is head of climate transition and ESG engagement at Royal London Asset Management, and Jack Loudon, is responsible investment analyst, Royal London Asset Management.
This article is sponsored by Royal London Asset Management.
