INVESTING WITH CLIMATE IN MIND

Incorporating financially material environmental, social, and/or governance information into investment research and decision-making, based on the conviction that sustainability-integrated portfolios can provide better risk-adjusted returns to investors.

Gases that trap heat in the atmosphere, such as carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Emissions result from a variety of human activities (e.g., energy generation, transportation, industrial processes).

Source: Greenhouse Gas Protocol, 31 March 2021.

List of issuers that present significant climate-related risk, with a combination of the following attributes:
• high carbon intensity today
• poorly positioned for the net zero transition
• low reception to our investment stewardship engagement

Engagement with public companies to promote corporate governance practices that are consistent with encouraging long-term value creation for shareholders. Engagement and voting provide shareholders an opportunity to express their views.

Reducing nearly all human-caused emissions and balancing out remaining emissions with carbon removal (e.g., restoring forests, carbon capture and storage). A global net zero commitment establishes an aggregate timeline for achieving the well below 2°C target called for in the Paris Agreement. Many country and corporate net zero commitments target 2050, consistent with global targets to avoid catastrophic outcomes from climate change.

International agreement to keep the increase in global average temperature to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels while endeavoring to limit warming to 1.5°C, the scientifically backed threshold to prevent the most destructive effects of climate change. Each country must determine, plan, and regularly report on the contribution that it undertakes to mitigate global warming.

Source: United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, 31 March 2021.

Increased risk to companies’ assets and activities caused by the direct impact of changing weather patterns and natural catastrophes.

Targets adopted by companies to reduce GHG emissions are considered “science-based” if they are in line with what the latest climate science says is required to meet the goals of the Paris Agreement. The Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) is a collaboration between CDP, World Resources Institute (WRI), the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF), and the United Nations Global Compact (UNGC) that champions science-based target setting as a powerful way to boost companies’ competitive advantage in the transition to the low-carbon economy.

Source: Science Based Targets initiative, 31 March 2021.

Temperature alignment reflects how closely aligned a business, government, or portfolio is to a 2050 net zero economy. Temperature alignment is a forward-looking measurement. In other words, it is measured by looking at emissions today as well as the potential of the emitter to reduce their emissions.

Impact of the transition to a low-carbon economy on a company’s long-term profitability (i.e., decreased profits for energy).

Source: BlackRock, 31 March 2021.