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The economic and societal impact of Covid-19 is now becoming more apparent and poses many additional challenges for companies, consumers, governments and investors alike. In our last newsletter we communicated our plans to directly address the risks posed by climate change. As we start to adjust to the ‘new normal’ it is important we redouble our efforts to transform our portfolio for a lower carbon world.

Brunel Pension Partnership has been named the Pension fund of the year by Environmental Finance. It also picked up another award for ESG Initiative of the Year.

Brunel Pension Partnership, today issued their 2020 Responsible Investment and Stewardship Outcomes Report, acknowledging the significant contribution made by Avon alongside all of the Brunel client funds. The report gives an account of how Brunel have delivered against our joint strategic responsible investment priorities through the year.

Avon Pension Fund joins 100+ investors, representing over €11 trillion in assets, to call on EU leaders to ensure a sustainable economic recovery from COVID-19 which supports the EU Green Deal & upholds the Paris Agreement.

In January we published details of a landmark shareholder resolution co-filed by Brunel Pension Partnership calling on Barclays to set and disclose targets to phase out its financing of fossil fuel companies where they are not aligned with the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. The outcome of the meeting has been hailed a success with Barclays’ own resolution winning majority support and committing them to becoming net carbon zero by 2050.

We are all witnessing the impact of climate change on our lives and many of our employers have declared climate emergencies in recent months. The current global health crisis underscores the importance of mitigating such risks on a global scale. Climate change, in particular, represents a systemic risk to people, the planet, and to the investment returns which are necessary to enable payment of pensions. The need for action on the climate crisis is more critical now than ever before.

Brunel Pension Partnership Limited (Brunel) is one of eight national pooled funds and manages the investment of the pension assets for the funds of Avon, Buckinghamshire, Cornwall, Devon, Dorset, Environment Agency, Gloucestershire, Oxfordshire, Somerset and Wiltshire. Brunel manages circa £30 billion investments on behalf of these 10 Local Government Pension Scheme funds.

Institutional investors managing over £130bn including Brunel Pension Partnership, one of Avon Pension Fund’s investment managers, have filed a shareholder resolution at Barclays alongside over 100 individual shareholders. It will be voted on by investors at Barclays’ annual general meeting in May 2020.

All LGPS funds are required to publish an Investment Strategy Statement. This statement explains the Fund's investment strategy, how it manages all relevant investment risks and how it carries out its stewardship responsibilities. Unison commissioned a report to review and analyse the statements which can be accessed below. The report highlights the proactive strategy the Avon Pension Fund has for responsible investing.