SUSTAINABLE FINANCE“ Mitigating climate change is the challenge of our lifetime,” says Oliver Bäte, CEO of Allianz, a founding member.
“ Politics, business and societies across the globe need to act as one to rapidly reduce climate emissions. We, as asset owners, will live up to our responsibility and, in dialogue with the companies in which we invest, steer towards low-carbon business practices.”
The NZAOA is one of the most ambitious and influential coalitions in the global financial sector’ s response to climate change. Established in 2019 by a group of leading institutional investors – including Allianz, CDPQ and SwissRe – in partnership with the United Nations Environment Programme Finance Initiative( UNEP FI) and the Principles for Responsible
Investment( PRI), the Alliance has rapidly grown to encompass 87 members across 18 countries, collectively representing more than US $ 9.5tn in assets under management.
The NZAOA’ s core mission is to align its members’ investment portfolios with the goals of the Paris Agreement, specifically aiming to limit global warming to well below 2 ° C, and ideally to 1.5 ° C, above preindustrial levels. To achieve this, members have pledged to transition their portfolios to net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. What sets the Alliance apart is its insistence on science-based interim targets – members must set and publicly disclose five-year decarbonisation targets, with a 22 % to 32 % reduction in portfolio emissions by 2025 and a 40 % to 60 % reduction by 2030. sustainabilitymag. com 145