Tuesday 23 February 2021

British Columbia Investment Management sets climate-related targets for public markets

The British Columbia Investment Management Corporation (BCI) has announced its commitment to five-year climate-related targets for its public markets programme.

It is targeting a $5 billion (£3.6bn) investment in sustainability bonds and aims to reduce the carbon exposure in its global public equities portfolio by 30% by 2025, using 2019 as a baseline.

The targets, which are consistent with the guidance of the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD), support the objectives set out in BCI's 2018 Climate Action Plan.

BCI, which has $171.3 billion (£122bn) of managed assets as of 31st March 2020, believes that gradually lowering exposure to carbon intensive companies and engaging with them to adapt to the low carbon economy “will lead to better financial outcomes” for its clients.

BCI Chief Executive Gordon J. Fyfe said: “BCI always works in the best financial interests of our clients. Assessing and managing the opportunities and risks presented by climate change is the core to that responsibility. These targets will help ensure our clients benefit from the shift to a low carbon economy.

“Importantly, they set concrete near-term goals that will help us track our progress as we continue to champion long term and sustainable growth.”