Latest news & announcements

Avon Pension Fund gains recognition at world’s first Net Zero Pension Summit

A group of wind turbines on a hill.

Avon Pension Fund has been recognised for its role in providing key investment data to Brunel Pension Partnership (BPP), aiding in the formulation of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) net zero investor framework.

On 1st June, Make My Money Matter hosted the world's first Net Zero Pension Summit – co-hosted by none other than Richard Curtis (British screen writer, producer and film director) and Mark Carney (former Governor of the Bank of England and current UN Envoy for Climate Action).

Avon Pension Fund adds its name to the 2021 Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis

Quote: We have signed the 2021 Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis calling for all governments to commit to ambitious climate policy action by COP26.

With the G7 Summit taking place this weekend in Cornwall, we’re proud to announce that we are a signatory of the 2021 Global Investor Statement to Governments on the Climate Crisis.

In signing this document, we stand alongside 456 other investors worldwide with a combined asset-worth of over $41 trillion. It calls on all governments in 2021 to increase their climate policy action and ambition urgently by COP26 (UN Climate Change Conference) in November.

Get to know Responsible Investment

In light of the Climate Emergency, there is growing pressure on countries and organisations alike to publicise what they are doing to address and tackle the issue. As your Pension Fund, we know it is our responsibility to be transparent and to explain our actions in the matter, especially when it comes to investment. We’re pleased to have a new tool in our box to help us keep that promise, that we’d like to share with you.

2020 Annual Review: Avon Pension Fund Engagement Highlights

Our ESG engagement/stewardship annual review of 2020 is here. This report outlines the engagement activity carried out by EOS Federated Hermes on behalf of Avon Pension Fund – and aims to highlight and quantify all the ESG engagement/stewardship activities carried out throughout 2020.

657 companies were engaged with across 2,419 environmental, social, governance, strategy, risk and communications issues and objectives. The impressive figures held in the report highlight how much of an impact we can have, both for the UK and world beyond.

Public sector exit cap no longer applies

The Government has confirmed that the public sector exit cap will not apply to exits from 12 February 2021.

The exit cap applied to employees leaving public sector employments from 4 November 2020 - it limited the amount of money a public sector employer could pay when an employee left their employment to £95,000.

Guidance issued by the Government states any employees who left employment between 4 November 2020 and 11 February 2021, who are directly affected by the cap should contact their previous employer. The Government expects employers to now pay any additional sums that would have been paid, if the cap had not applied. The additional sums could be payable to you as an employee or to your pension fund to pay towards to the cost of you receiving your pension early. Check with your employer if you think this applies to you.

The Government remains committed to tackling unjustified exit payments and will bring forward proposals to do this shortly. It is likely that the exit cap could be introduced again later this year.

HSBC shareholder resolution update

Intensive engagement by Brunel and the coalition of investors that filed a climate change resolution at HSBC, calling on them to publish a strategy to reduce exposure to fossil fuel assets on a timeline consistent with the Paris climate goals, has led to the withdrawal of the shareholder resolution. This is in exchange for HSBC’s own board-backed resolution.

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