Brunel targets 50% cut in emissions by 2030

Brunel Pensions Partnership has committed to halving the carbon emissions of its investment portfolio by 2030 and set a goal of hitting net zero by 2050.

The pensions pool has helped in the launch of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change’s Net Zero Investor Framework (NZIF), which seeks to provide institutional investors with the tools to align their strategies with the Paris Agreement on climate change.

Brunel is one of 33 signatories, representing more than $8.5 trillion, already putting the framework to practical use.

Brunel provided early sponsorship to the framework and continued to partner to ensure the framework was researched, built, consulted on and delivered. Meanwhile Avon Pension Fund provided investment data used in the research phase.

Alongside Brunel, Avon, Cornwall, Devon, Oxfordshire and the Environment Agency Pension funds have signed the commitment statement.

Ray Bloxham, chair of the investment & pensions committee, Devon County Council, said: “We are committed to not only reducing the carbon footprint of our current investments but to ensuring that, in the long term, our investments are carbon-neutral.”

To achieve real emissions reductions, it is vital investors engage with the companies they are invested in, to hold them to take responsibility for their product throughout its usage, not just in its manufacture, he added.