On the go: Legal & General has announced it is to cut the carbon emissions intensity of its £80.7bn annuity book by 18.5 per cent by 2025 and 50 per cent by 2030 as part of its drive to become net-zero by 2050.
L&G Retirement, the company’s annuity business, recently launched its new environmental, social and governance policy, laying out how these targets are to be achieved while ensuring that policyholders’ benefits are secured.
The policy aims to bring L&G Retirement into line with established practice at L&G Investment Management, and will see emphasis placed on decarbonising the former’s portfolio with divestment being used where necessary.
Investment will be focused “in assets that create real jobs, improve infrastructure and tackle the biggest issues of our time”, according to the policy document, and data will be used to identify and manage ESG-related risks.
This will be achieved by incorporating ESG into all levels of the investment process, whether in the analysis and decision-making stage, ownership policies and practices, or when demanding disclosures from investees.
Commenting on the move, Laura Mason, chief executive of L&G Retirement Institutional, said: “L&G are committed to investing where we can deliver a social good and achieve our ambition of driving ‘inclusive capitalism’, while delivering the returns that secure our pension policyholders’ benefits.
“Climate change is a serious threat, and we recognise that our scale brings a responsibility to take action,” Ms Mason continued.
“The insurance sector has an important role to play in using pension money to invest in sustainable projects across the UK, and I hope that our new policy document will highlight how we and others can play our part in tackling climate change.”
