Hymans Robertson has launched a new action group – The Climate Impact Initiative – which aims to encourage providers to make climate-friendly impact investment options available for all savers regardless of pension fund size.
The group is seeking the support of pension plans, with no cost or contractual commitment, to “help grow the voice of asset owners to compel providers to address the needs of defined contribution pension savers”, the firm stated.
The current list of supporters for the action group include Make My Money Matter, Pensions For Purpose, the Impact Investing Institute and the Trustee of the Reach Pension Plan.
Hymans is asking pension plan trustees and governance committees to register their support for the campaign to help make these positive, forward-thinking options available to their members by signing up online.
Callum Stewart, senior investment consultant at Hymans, said that according to research by the Defined Contribution Investment Forum (DCIF), up to four million pension savers are in plans with no clear access to climate friendly options.
“Yet we know this is something that an increasing number of savers want from their pension funds,” he said, adding that “while we recognise that a number of providers have made great strides in this by making these options available and many have plans to, there is so much more that the industry could be doing to help individual savers have more of an impact to address climate change relative to existing funds.”
Paul Rhodes, member-nominated trustee for the Reach Pension Plan, said: “I have found through researching a climate impact option for members of the Reach Pension Plan that small and medium-sized schemes could face high costs and a governance burden to create something on their own.”
He has urged for trustees and governance committees of other pension plans to work together “to create a climate impact investment for us all that would offer our members value for money and increased engagement to help produce better retirement outcomes”.
Sarah Gordon, chief executive officer of the Impact Investing Institute, said: “The Impact Investing Institute is happy to support this initiative that seeks to provide a climate friendly impact investing option for Britain’s pension savers.”
No comments yet