SEB Investment Management has undertaken the pledge for net zero emissions among the company’s mutual funds by 2040. This means that the companies will need to work in the same direction and at a good pace. At present this change is taking place too slowly, however.
“Indications at present are that we are on track to falling well short of the 1.5°C goal by a wide margin. Too few companies have set targets, and even fewer have begun delivering substantial emissions reductions,” says Patrik Jönsson, corporate governance specialist at SEB Investment Management.
“For this reason, it is important that we continue participating in this initiative. It should be viewed as a strong urge to everyone – but in this case mainly large emitters – to align themselves and set science-based targets to reduce their carbon emissions, with a view to achieving the 1.5°C goal.”
This is the third year that SEB Investment Management is backing CDP’s (the Carbon Disclosure Project’s) global campaign. The call for corporate action has been signed by 274 financial institutions that represent roughly USD 36.5 trillion in managed assets. The number of signatories has increased by 25 per cent since 2021.
“At mid-year 2022 we could see that 26 per cent of the companies in our funds had pledged to adopt or had adopted science-based targets for reducing their carbon emissions. Last year the figure was 22 per cent,” says Patrik Jönsson. “Of course, we want to see continued strong growth in the number of participating companies around the world.”
Read more about the campaign here:
CDP Science-Based Targets Campaign - CDP