Maria Nazarova-Doyle, Head of Pension Investments at Scottish Widows, comments on the environmental impact of FTSE100 companies and their pension investments.

The pension investments of major FTSE100 companies finance 7x more carbon than their UK company emissions according to a new report by Richard Curtis’ climate finance campaign Make My Money Matter and pension provider Scottish Widows.  

The research, conducted by sustainability research house Route2, suggests that major businesses’ efforts to operate more sustainably are being undermined by the investments within their company pension schemes. In fact, the investments of FTSE100 pension schemes currently finance an estimated 131 million tonnes of unreported carbon to enter our atmosphere each year. 

Poor awareness among leadership around the link between pensions and climate change is compounding the problem. Further research by Make My Money Matter shows that less than half (45%) of CEOs and business leaders know that their company pension scheme could be driving climate change**, and that less than 10% of FTSE100 companies even mention pensions within their sustainability strategies.  

Maria Nazarova-Doyle, Head of Pension Investments at Scottish Widows commented:

With over £2.7 trillion invested in pensions in the UK, we simply can’t overlook the significant impact our pensions have on the future success of a net-zero economy – and ultimately, on the livelihoods of people and the planet.

As this report shows, whilst progress has been made, there is a huge amount of work yet to be done in helping employers ensure their employees’ savings are invested in sustainable ways. Many companies simply aren’t aware of how their pension schemes are undermining or even undoing the sustainability progress they are making across their operations.

Full release: Carbon footprint of FTSE100 pensions 7x higher than their company emissions

✉️ Melissa Shires, bcw-global, 020 73006108 / melissa.shires@bcw-global.com