It is almost five years since the Paris Agreement was signed and we are seeing countries, cities and companies across the globe reaffirm their commitment by pledging to reach ‘net zero’ emissions by 2050. More and more companies have committed to net zero. Sovereign bodies like France, the UK, New Zealand and the EU are working on legally binding net zero targets. And cities from Amsterdam to Addis Ababa have committed.
Investors have a role to play too. At Kempen we believe it is critical that investors take a leadership role in driving the low carbon transition by aligning their portfolios with a net zero path. This month we put our money where our mouth is by launching an updated Climate Change Policy that explicitly commits us to have net-zero emission investments by 2050, and sets a short term objective to align all our listed investments (and those of our managers) with the pathway of the Paris Agreement (and the Dutch Klimaatakkoord goals) by 2025. We also have the ambition of aligning all non-listed investments by 2030.
Our new Climate Change Policy brings together climate-friendly policies in areas from green bonds to coal exemptions and active ownership. The idea is to push us box ticking and ensure we are continuously taking tangible steps to implement this policy across our investment process.