Thursday 25 November 2021
The Ireland Strategic Investment Fund (ISIF), managed by the National Treasury Management Agency (NTMA), has today published its first-ever annual climate report.
The report reflects the growing importance of climate action to ISIF, which recently announced it is targeting €1bn in climate action-related investments over the next 5 years.
It contains key metrics on carbon emissions from ISIF investments, building on ISIF’s existing environmental disclosures, as well as details of ISIF’s climate goals. By enhancing its climate-related disclosures, ISIF is committing to disclosing its progress in meeting its climate targets and providing the public with detailed information on the climate impact of its investments.
Key information in ISIF’s annual climate report:
- ISIF has committed over €300m to projects in Ireland in renewable energy and forestry
- ISIF on target to meet its goal of reducing the carbon intensity of its Global Portfolio by 50% by 2025
- ISIF is developing new customised metrics for its Irish Portfolio to reflect its unique composition and the challenges of sourcing data that is consistent across individual companies and sectors.
The report captures the position as of 31 December 2020.
Emma Jane Joyce, Head of Responsible Investment at ISIF, said:
“ISIF takes climate action seriously. This report brings together the different strands and actions of our approach to climate into one document and, for the first time, presents an overarching whole of fund Climate Goal.
As Ireland’s sovereign development fund, we are doing this because we want to lead by example and to be as transparent to the public and all our stakeholders as we expect our investees to be to us.”
Further information on ISIF’s climate approach
The Fund is focused on ensuring that in both its Global and Irish portfolios, investee companies and third party managers are considering potential climate risks and opportunities as appropriate and that these are captured as a part of ISIF’s decision making and portfolio management.
ISIF demonstrates its climate impact in four ways:
1. Capital allocation – investing ISIF capital in climate-focused investments
2. Divestment – choosing not to invest in companies or sectors that are not aligned with ISIF’s climate requirements
3. Integration - how ISIF considers climate across the whole portfolio (not just in its climate investments)
4. Active Ownership - ISIF uses its equity shareholding and/or debt exposures to influence the management of individual companies and to achieve material ESG (environment, social, governance) improvements.
ISIF’s climate goals
ISIF will:
1. Decarbonise ISIF’s investment Portfolio in a way that is consistent with achieving Net Zero emissions before 2050;
2. Allocate capital to investment in assets and businesses that lower emissions and facilitate or take action to mitigate the impact of climate change;
3. Utilise best practice Investment Frameworks and guidance to achieve Net Zero;
4. Verify the climate commitments of ISIF's investees and asset managers; and
5. Support companies and sectors that are leaders in emissions efficiency.
In addition, ISIF will set emissions reduction targets and measure ISIF's progress against them. ISIF acknowledges that metrics to assess investments and measure alignment are continuously evolving across asset classes and ISIF commits to develop its metrics in line with best practices.
ISIF will also conduct climate financial risk assessment in line with Task Force for Climate related Financial Disclosure recommendations (TCFD).