Hot on the heels of the biodiversity COP, the latest United Nations climate change conference has now gotten underway. Running from 11 to 24 November, it’s been billed as the ‘Finance COP’.

In terms of official deals, the first day led to an agreement on standards for international carbon crediting projects under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. The hope is that an all-round Article 6 decision will be reached, and that this will help bring climate finance to developing countries.

Meanwhile, at the Church Commissioners, which manage a £10.4bn investment fund, the head of responsible investment turned to social media to take a tongue-in-cheek swipe at the BBC for its depiction of the asset owner “turning up to COP staying in a luxury hotel and schmoozing with asset managers”.

Olga Hancock at Church Commissioners

Church Commissioners’ head of responsible investment Olga Hancock says NZAOA wants to see countries submit ambitious Nationally Determined Contributions in line with the 1.5°C pathway

Olga Hancock is attending the summit on behalf of the Net Zero Asset Owner Alliance’s (NZAOA) policy work stream to engage with governments and stakeholders on ways to meet the Paris Agreement goals. Last month the NZAOA reported that its members were managing to decarbonise their portfolios at a rate consistent with the goals of the Paris Agreement. The fly in the ointment is that “the same scale of reductions has not yet taken place in the real economy,” it noted.

To achieve real-world change, NZAOA members are shifting their focus to policy advocacy, working with governments to push for green industrial and financial policies. Other responsible investment bodies are also turning towards policy advocacy as many investors feel they have gone as far as they are able to under current policy regimes.

Investors and many others will hope that COP29 will deliver more than the biodiversity COP that preceded it. It concluded on 1 November without an agreement on the creation of a fund to support poorer countries with their biodiversity efforts, although there was a focus on blended finance and the Taskforce on Nature-related Financial Disclosures (TNFD) announced plans to create a free library of data to help entities with the first phase of its disclosure process. 

Separately, in what was described as “a major milestone in a multiannual effort to address the financial implications of climate change”, the European Insurance and Occupational Pensions Authority (EIOPA) last week has recommended stricter capital requirements for insurers holding fossil fuel assets.

Last but certainly not least, this month IPE published its latest annual responsible investment report, focussed on investors’ progress and challenges amid efforts to keep the 1.5°C alive.

Items to note:

Susanna Rust

ESG Editor

This news briefing was published earlier in the week. If you would like to receive it regularly, on your ‘IPE profile’, go to ‘My Newsletters‘ and select any from the list.

Susanna is deputy news editor at IPE. At IPE she covers responsible investment and EU regulation, but also enjoys reporting on developments in and around the UK pensions industry. Having been a financial journalist since 2008, Susanna started her career as a corporate governance/corporate social responsibility analyst at proxy advisory firm PIRC.View full Profile

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