Investor climate group relaunches with looser rules but fewer US members

By Simon Jessop

LONDON, Feb 25 (Reuters) – The Net Zero Asset Managers initiative re-launched on Wednesday with more than 250 members after a year-long suspension and with looser rules after a U.S. political backlash prompted BlackRock to leave the climate group.

The group’s new membership statement, created following a six-month review, no longer has an explicit requirement for members to align their investment portfolios with net-zero by 2050, or a requirement to set shorter-term targets.

It followed attacks from some U.S. Republican politicians that membership of the group and others like it could breach antitrust rules, prompting BlackRock, the world’s biggest manager, to leave in early 2025.

A further 32 U.S. firms then followed suit including Capital Group, JPMorgan Asset management and Franklin Templeton.

Despite the new, weaker rules, just 12 U.S. firms re-signed compared with 44 U.S. members at the time of the suspension. Others such as State Street Investment Management and Wellington Management re-signed but only for their European businesses.

Rebecca Mikula-Wright, Chair of NZAM’s Steering Committee, said the scale of remaining support nevertheless sent a “strong signal to clients, regulators and other key stakeholders” that members were focused on managing the climate challenge.

“The strong participation in today’s relaunch reflects the value NZAM signatories find in having a credible platform to demonstrate to their clients how they are addressing climate-related financial risks and capturing transition opportunities.”

Under the new commitment statement, signatories would independently set targets and develop their own strategies as they look to reduce the climate-damaging emissions linked to their investments, and report annually on progress.

“The new statement reflects the evolution of climate investing from an original focus on decarbonising portfolios, towards a broader set of approaches that includes decarbonisation alongside transition investing, climate solutions, adaptation and resilience,” said Dan Grandage, chief sustainable investment officer at Aberdeen Investments.

(Reporting by Simon Jessop; Editing by Tommy Reggiori Wilkes and Elaine Hardcastle)