Alquity, specialist ESG and emerging market fund managers are the newest fund manager to commit funds to P1 Investment Management’s (P1) Net Zero Carbon Target (NZC Target), combining emerging market investment with net-zero carbon emission ambitions.
Sustainable Investment adds Emerging Markets
Alquity’s specialist $43mn Asia and $37mn Future World funds will be joining the NZC target, alongside existing fund managers Aegon, Janus Henderson, Liontrust, Montanaro, Triodos Investment Management and WHEB. The target set up by P1 with input from its external Ethical Oversight Committee is designed to be practical to implement for investors and fund managers, encouraging them to align and engage their portfolios towards carbon-neutrality. Scientist and investors agree tackling climate change in the long term requires the global economy to become carbon neutral. Alquity’s adoption of the target brings the total number of fund managers to seven, with 13 funds meeting the target’s requirements. The growing number of funds signing up to the target, aided by the surge in popularity for sustainable investment in 2020, has seen committed AUMs grow to £7.3bn.
Suresh Mistry, Alquity Co-Founder, said, “At Alquity, we believe in a fair and just transition to a net-zero carbon emission global economy. By supporting the NZC10 Initiative, particularly within Emerging Markets, we want to help accelerate this transition through tangible and proactive engagement with companies in developing economies.”
P1’s Head of Sustainable Investment, Dr Rayer, said, “NZC is a realistic target designed to work with investors, requiring 10% of their portfolio to be invested in assets which are either carbon-neutral, have achievable plans to become carbon-neutral or the fund manager is engaging on carbon-neutral planning. It ambitiously targets 2030 for its carbon-neutrality requirement. The commonly used target of 2050 for net-zero is where the bulk of the global economy needs to be to meet Paris Agreement goals. We feel that our NZC target allows sustainable investors to show genuine leadership by targeting the earlier date of 2030. It is great to think there’s now £7.3bn in assets engaging firms to become carbon-neutral across the globe.” He added, “The global economy needs to be carbon-neutral which makes Alquity and its emerging market themes an exciting addition to the target. We need more than just developed economies to be carbon-neutral; we all share the same planet and atmosphere. Alquity’s funds and their engagement in these markets will help promote carbon-neutrality globally.”
Currently, the target requires 10% of the portfolio are aligned with its carbon-neutral requirements, but P1 and the fund managers are already pushing to make it 20%.