On the go: The South Yorkshire Pensions Authority, responsible for administering the county’s £9bn local authority pension scheme for its 160,000 members, has adopted a net-zero by 2030 policy to govern its portfolio.
In a meeting on September 30, members of the SYPA agreed that the authority — which was one of the first Local Government Pension Scheme-administering authorities to adopt a climate change policy and the reporting requirements of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures — should bolster its green credentials by making its portfolio carbon neutral within 10 years.
SYPA members further opted to require an action plan be presented to them by the scheme officers within six months.
Cllr Mick Stowe, SYPA chair, welcomed the decision. “We have acknowledged for some time that climate change is the biggest risk facing the value of our scheme members’ pension savings. This is the next step along the road to effectively managing that risk,” he said.
“We cannot do this on our own, and we will be looking to bring our colleagues within the Border to Coast Pensions Partnership on this journey with us.”
The BCPP, based in Leeds, is a vehicle by which 11 LGPS-administering authorities may pool their investment assets. Sixty per cent of SYPA’s assets are currently pooled in the BCPP, though each member scheme retains responsibility for its own environmental, social and governance policies.
Members of the SYPA also agreed to commission work to develop a comprehensive impact-reporting framework, intended to cover all of the fund’s investments, to provide comprehensive information about the overall level of emissions from the portfolio and impacts relevant to the fund’s sustainable development goals.
Commenting on the latter development, Mr Stowe said: “Pension funds rightly get criticised for the level of emissions and other impacts from their listed equity investments. However, these only represent around half the story, and alongside setting a net-zero goal we need to be able to tell the full story.
“This work will enable us to provide a more balanced picture that properly reflects both the positive steps we are already taking, such as significant investment in renewable energy, and our more traditional investments in listed companies.”
