Lloyd’s is committed to using its influence as a shareholder to promote better management of climate change amongst the companies it invests in, and uses F&C’s reo® service to vote and engage on the companies in its equity portfolio on its behalf.
Lloyd’s engagement provider, F&C, was a founder signatory to the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP), which in 2009 will be requesting information on climate change from over 3,700 companies worldwide. The requested information includes:
- Management views on risks and opportunities of climate change
- Greenhouse gas emissions accounting
- Strategy for reducing emissions and minimising climate risk
- Details of corporate governance on climate change
In addition, F&C routinely asks for companies to make available more information on their greenhouse gas emissions and climate change strategies in its one-to-one meetings with management, and also encourages such publication through its membership of groups such as the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, which has published detailed disclosure frameworks for the utilities and auto sectors.
In 2008 F&C recorded 170 instances where a company improved its practices on climate change as a result of engagement, many of which related to improved response rates to the CDP.
