New York Appoints Its First-Ever ESG Director

The New York State Common Retirement Fund has appointed Andrew Siwo to help lead its climate change-oriented ambitions as director of Sustainable Investments and Climate Solutions.

Siwo’s chief responsibility would be to support the implementation of New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli’s Climate Action Plan, which calls for divestment from companies that fail to address minimum carbon-emissions standards that the fund will adhere to. Siwo will help the pension double the fund’s allocation from $10 billion to $20 billion over the next decade to its “Sustainable Investment-Climate Solutions Program.”

“Climate change is one of the most significant risks facing investors and the warnings are growing increasingly dire,” DiNapoli said. “This is a proactive plan to mitigate climate risk, capitalize on opportunities in the growing low carbon economy and protect the fund’s long-term value.”

Siwo has extensive experience in formulating ESG-friendly investment strategies, having previously headed the Mission-Related Investing team at Colonial Consulting, where he focused on ESG, SRI and impact investments. Prior to that, he curated an impact investing platform designed for institutional investors and fund managers at the Global Impact Investing Network.

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“Comptroller DiNapoli’s innovative Climate Action Plan puts New York’s pension fund at the forefront of the low carbon economy,” Siwo said. “I have spent much of my career sourcing, assessing, and managing sustainable investments and am looking forward to growing the Fund’s sustainable investments portfolio.”

New York Mayor Bill DeBlasio, along with London Mayor Sadiq Khan, recently issued a report imploring global cities to divest from fossil fuels. The report came as a toolkit with suggestions on how to go about divestment. Ideas included rallying public support, regulating pension funds’ asset allocations, and outlining the financial risks associated with investments in companies and operations that do not align well with a 2-degrees Celsius limit, like that of the Paris agreement.

The New York State Common Retirement Fund is one of the nation’s leading public pension plans with regards to climate-oriented investments. The Asset Owners Disclosure Project ranked the pension as the #1 in the US, and #3 globally, for its efforts to decarbonize their portfolio.

Tags: Climate Change, ESG, impact investments, New York, New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYCRF), Sustainable Investments

Eleven institutional investors that manage more than £130 billion ($170 billion) worth of assets have filed a shareholder resolution calling for Barclays to set clear targets to phase out services to energy companies that fail to account for Paris climate goals.

The investors urge the bank to develop a plan to gradually stop the provision of financial services, including project finance, corporate finance, and underwriting to companies in the energy sector. They also include gas and electric utilities that are not aligned with the goals of the Paris climate agreement. The resolution is being coordinated by UK charity ShareAction, which claimed it is the first climate change resolution filed at a European bank.

“As systemically important actors, large global banks can influence whether or not the Paris goals are met,” said the resolution. “The sector is therefore expected to ensure that its financing activities are aligned with the Paris goals. This requires a significant shift of capital away from carbon-related assets and towards low-carbon sectors.”

The group cited an April statement by the Bank of England that said that failing to meet the Paris goals could result in the most severe financial risks for the banking sector. It also said that banks will inevitably feel the consequences of events caused by climate change as they are lenders to the entire economy.

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“These events include physical risks, such as flooding, which can impact the value of assets held by banks and increase credit risks,” the statement said.

The investors also said Barlays has fallen behind its peers in accounting for climate change, contending that its European competitors have taken “more ambitious steps to align their energy financing with the Paris goals.”

They said HSBC has committed to not providing project financing or general-purpose lending where the majority of the financing is used for new offshore oil and gas in the Arctic, and new greenfield oil sands projects.

Standard Chartered won’t provide new financial services to new projects or developments that involve the extraction and construction of associated export facilities from tar sands. Standard also includes the exploration or production of oil and gas in the Amazon basin and the exploration or production of oil and gas in the Arctic region. ING committed to reducing its exposure to coal power generation to nearly zero by 2025.

French bank Credit Agricole also has committed to align exposure of its portfolios to the coal industry with a full phase out of coal by 2030 for EU and OECD countries; 2040 for China; and 2050 for the rest of the world. French bank BNP Paribas committed not to provide financial products or services to exploration and production companies that own or operate pipelines or liquid natural gas export terminals supplied with a significant volume of unconventional oil and gas.

“We believe that it is crucial for investors to carry out climate change risk assessments across the whole financial chain,” Laura Chappell, CEO of the £30 billion Brunel Pension Partnership, which is among the 11 investors, said in a statement. “As banks are the biggest lenders, they are a key component of this. The lending practices of many banks pose a serious threat to the goals to the Paris agreement.”

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Tags: Barclays, Brunel Pension Partnership, Fossil Fuels, Laura Chappell, Paris agreement, ShareAction