Addressing and combating climate change is one of the defining challenges of the 21st century. For asset managers, it presents myriad issues but also a wide range of opportunities to invest in forwardlooking companies and assets that can have a real-world positive impact on society and the environment. Igneo Infrastructure Partners – the direct infrastructure investing business owned by First Sentier Investors – began reviewing its climate change policy in 2020 with the aim of being able to demonstrate tangible results from its engagement work with portfolio companies.

Beyond net-zero

Sophie Durham, Managing Director and Head of ESG for Europe at Igneo, recalls that the company’s initial analysis work at a portfolio level soon proved to be limited in terms of actionable outputs, beyond setting net-zero emissions targets. “There has been a lot of criticism of these targets because they can be seen as just ticking a box,” Durham says. “Our whole ESG approach is about focusing on actions and results in portfolio companies. At the same time as setting our net-zero target, we launched Climate Action 1, 2, 3!, which we think is a much more important initiative.”

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