Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance boosts efforts on climate change

With a pledge to reduce environmentally damaging emissions from portfolios by half by 2030 and to accelerate sustainable finance, the influential investor group Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance has ramped up its commitment to tackle climate change.

The prominent investor group, comprising 70 large institutions, has pledged that member firms will aim to reduce emissions linked to their portfolios of investments by between 49% and 65% in the next eight years (to 2030), after including a broader range of carbon-intensive sectors within its target framework.

This new commitment expands previous plans targeting a reduction in portfolio emissions by between 16% and 29% across listed equities, publicly traded corporate bonds and real estate assets by 2025. The newly expanded framework now includes sectors where carbon emission reductions are more challenging to achieve due to production methods, including agriculture, chemicals, water, concrete and aluminium, along with a new asset class – infrastructure equity and debt.