The climate threat: Will investors exit big oil?

Institutional investors are increasingly being required to factor climate change into their decision-making

UK pension schemes have for a couple of decades spoken about taking environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors into consideration in their investment decisions—and then largely proceeded to invest regardless. The movement had lacked focus, but momentum is now squarely behind efforts to use the invested trillions to help fight climate change. UK pension scheme trustees have a fiduciary responsibility to maximise risk-adjusted returns for scheme members and, theoretically if not in reality, are personally financially responsible for losses made from unreasonable decisions. Historically, this has trumped all other considerations. The official view now is that climate change poses a mate