09/20/2021 | Press release | Distributed by Public on 09/20/2021 05:55
20 September 2021
5 min read
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Royal London, the UK's largest mutual life, pensions and investments provider, has reduced the carbon intensity of equity funds across its pension default investment solution by 12%.
This new approach has increased investment in companies with good ESG practices and decreased fund holdings in companies with poorer practices. This approach, combined with existing proactive engagement with companies and exercising of voting rights, aims to encourage the companies with the largest carbon footprint to do more to tackle the climate crisis.
The changes have been made with no extra charges to customers, and without significantly impacting risk or returns. These funds are one of the key building blocks of Royal London's flagship investment proposition, the Governed Range, which has more than 1m customers' pensions invested in it.
New research¹ from Royal London also shows more than half (57%) of consumers believe their pension provider should be responsible for investing their savings to positively impact climate change. This compares to 16% who believe they are personally responsible for the impact of their pension on climate change, and one in ten (9%) who think it's down to their employer.
Julie Scott, Royal London's Chief Commercial Officer, said:
'Pensions are invested in a range of companies that are currently shaping the world's future and have an impact on climate change. We recognise the power that pensions have, which is why we are investing responsibly and take into account the impact that companies we invest in have on the environment.
'The majority of our customers believe that we have a responsibility to help them invest their pension to positively impact climate change. That's why we are making it easy to invest responsibly with Royal London, including making this change to our core pension offering at no extra charge to customers.'
-ENDS-
Meera Khanna, Senior PR Manager
Royal London is the largest mutual life insurance, pensions and investment company in the UK, with assets under management of £153 billion, 8.8 million policies in force and 4,075 employees. Figures quoted are as at 30 June 2021.