Aviva Investors walks the “monitoring list” backwards to give up less green investments

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Aviva Investors abandoned a historic risk sale plan in companies that fail to curb carbon emissions sufficiently, and join the direction of investment managers to calm green obligations.

London -based investment house, which oversees 238 billion pounds in assets, Declare In 2021, 30 of the largest mining, oil and gas companies were placed in the “monitoring list” as part of the alleged participation program.

At that time, she said she was “committed to full fairness” from those who failed to meet their expectations about green work, including demand that companies be “1.5C align”.

Companies were asked to set targets to reduce their emissions to levels that keep global warming less than 1.5 ° C above pre -industry levels. This number is the minimum goal in the United Nations United Nations Climate Agreement.

The pledge to get rid of the most ambitious efforts in the asset management industry for carbon -dense companies to calculate greenhouse gas emissions. The company was to get rid of investments in companies that lack its requirements within three years.

However, after four years, the investor – a section of the insurance company Aviva – said that he had renewed the participation program. The Financial Times told the Financial Times that it instead focuses on dealing with “a broader set of critical sectors, such as flying, transportation, building materials and industries.”

The decline came after the repercussions of Russia’s war on Ukraine to the high price of many intensive carbon companies. There was also an intense violent reaction against the use of environmental and social standards and investment governance.

Aviva said that her condemnations related to climate science and the possibility of global warming have “long material effects on the performance of investment” were “unambiguous”.

But he added: “Since the identification of the climate engagement program in 2021, the market has evolved significantly.” The company said that “a very different macro background” has appeared.

He added: “Fears about energy security and economic recovery have emerged, which in turn had an impact on the organizational environment and the path of national carbon removal plans.”

The company did not reveal whether it was fully stripped of any companies it put on the initial hours list.

But he said that in some cases, as he was not satisfied with the progress in which the company was towards energy transition, it made the decision to “re -customize the capital.”

She turned the capital to companies that I believed best supported the green transition and was leading it.

At the beginning of the contract, asset managers were explicit about the risk of climate change to the investment portfolios.

“The climate risk is the risk of investment,” said Larry Fink, CEO of Blackrock, the world’s largest investment board, said in 2020.

But in the past two years, many asset managers have withdraw From groups to push companies to take climate measures, reduce their support for green decisions in annual meetings and reduce employment levels in green jobs.

Robert Nuwiz, UK Coordinator DiveSter, a group of asset managers for a long time on climate issues, has criticized the change of Aviva in TACK. It was called “very disappointing news from a presumed leader in climate space.”

“Aviva is very close to losing its crown by not following up on its promise to drop companies that avoid energy transmission,” Nuweiz said.

He added that the company was suffering from “Zeitgeist”.

Aviva Investors ranked first among 10 in assessment of asset managers who vote on shareholders ’decisions on climate and social issues in annual meetings in 2022. But by this year he decreased to the thirtieth position, and a report from Sharection showed.

Nuweiz said that the asset managers had “tremendous potential” to transform the economy away from “exorbitant fossil fuels, which are risky and volatile” and about “more clean energy sources.”

He said: “The agents of the origin of the origins must demand the follow -up of Aviva to support this transition.”