We've signed up to CDP’s Science-based targets initiative

The London Pensions Fund Authority (LPFA) has signed up to support the Science-based targets initiative (SBTi) campaign organised by CDP (the Carbon Disclosure Project). The LPFA Fund has assets of around £7.6 billion and, in 2021, made a commitment to go net zero. The SBTi is made up of over 4,000 organisations worldwide and is supported by the Worldwide Fund for Nature (WWF), the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) and the World Resources Institute (WRI) as well as the CDP.

Participating organisations use science-based targets to provide a roadmap to reduce emissions at the pace and scale that science sets out as necessary to avoid the most catastrophic effects of climate change. Positively, the SBTi Monitoring Report 2022 reported a sharp rise in companies setting science-based targets in 2022, with 87% more having their targets validated (1,097), more than the entire previous seven years combined (1,082). The latest STBi campaign runs from October 2023 to October 2024.

Robert Branagh, LPFA’s CEO said, “Following our net zero commitment, our Investor Climate Action Plan was launched in November 2022 and amongst our 6 goals, we committed to engaging with companies in our portfolio to drive action on climate change. As part of this commitment, we seek to collaborate with like-minded organisations and put our voice to campaigns that drive our society’s transition to a low carbon economy.”

According to Paul Hewitt, LPFA’s Responsible Investment Manager, “We’ve been regular supporters of CDP supporting their 2022 campaign and making use of their climate data which helps us monitor our portfolio emissions. CDP will be writing to over 2,100 high-impact companies, asking them to commit to and set 1.5 degree aligned Science-Based Targets. We are very proud that the LPFA name will be one of the signatories and helping support change.”

The LPFA’s Investor Climate Action Plan sets out six goals, five of which are focused on emission reductions for the fund and for their operations. The remaining goal commits the LPFA and their delegated investment manager, Local Pension Partnership Investments (LPPI), to meet, speak and write to companies in which the Fund is invested to ensure that they're also making progress towards alignment. As part of this goal, the LPFA will also support campaigns that fit with their net zero objectives.

In February 2023, for example, the LPFA also committed to supporting Share Action’s climate-related campaign focused on the banking industry. Thirty institutional investors, including the LPFA, with assets of over $1.5 trillion are taking part in a campaign to urge the banking industry to stop directly financing new oil and gas fields by the end of 2023. Investors issued letters to Barclays, BNP Paribas, Crédit Agricole, Deutsche Bank and Société Generale urging action.