Amundi’s entry into CEC coincides with a Canadian expansion led by its parent company Crédit Agricole, the French bank.Philippe Wojazer/Reuters
Top European asset manager Amundi SA has joined a coalition of institutional investors that is pushing Canadian companies for better climate-related disclosure and tougher targets, showing the group making strides while other global efforts are losing members or shutting down.
Paris-based Amundi has signed up with Climate Engagement Canada as an international supporter. An industry-led initiative focused on decarbonizing the country’s industries, CEC now has 43 Canadian members and 18 international participants, representing total assets under management of $14.5-trillion, focused on decarbonizing the country’s industries. The group was founded in 2021 with 27 investor-members.
Jean-Jacques Barbéris, director of Amundi’s institutional and corporate clients division as well as ESG, said the company’s engagement efforts with companies globally align with what CEC promotes – including adherence to international reporting standards, planning for the transition to a low-carbon economy, directing capital spending at emissions reduction and setting short- and medium-term emissions targets.
“It’s clearly the type of approach that we have when we do engagement on transition pathways vis-a-vis companies. So overall, I think, we share the philosophy of the CEC regarding assessment of transition, and that’s also why I would say we’re happy to be part of it now,” Mr. Barbéris said in an interview during a recent trip to Montreal.
Amundi’s entry into CEC coincides with a Canadian expansion led by its parent company Crédit Agricole, the French bank.
CEC members are focused on meeting with the boards and management teams of Canada’s largest industrial emitters to press home the need to set tougher emissions targets, reduce climate-related financial risks and accelerate the shift to a low-carbon economy. Its focus list includes companies in oil and gas, utilities, mining, transport and consumer goods, as well as food, agriculture and other industrials, in which its members have investments.
The group also publishes an annual benchmarking study.
Many Canadian institutions, such as AGF Management, TD Asset Management, RBC Global Asset Management, Alberta Investment Management Corp. and Manulife Investment Management, are members.
Amundi, with more than €2.2-trillion ($3.6-trillion) of assets under management, joins a growing number of international participants, including BNP Paribas Asset Management, California Public Employees’ Retirement System, California State Teachers’ Retirement System, New York State Teachers’ Retirement System and Nordea Life & Pension Group.
“It is a great illustration of international investors having interest in Canada and seeing the effectiveness of engagement. Amundi has a great engagement program,” said Barbara Zvan, chief executive officer of University Pension Plan Ontario and chair of CEC.
“So having someone with that level of credibility and experience is a huge asset for us.”
The shift under way in the global pension sphere to defined-contribution from defined-benefit plans is playing a big role in driving Amundi’s expansion, Mr. Barbéris said.
Early this year, it won a £20-billion mandate with The People’s Pension (TPP), one of Britain’s largest retirement funds. Amundi touted a strategy that incorporates climate-related criteria. It is also providing the fund with sustainability data, reporting and analytics.
“TPP clearly indicated that they chose us to replace an American asset manager that they were considering but was not in line with their climate objectives any more,” Mr. Barbéris said. “So for us, really, the development of this market is promising in Canada.”
CEC is attracting members as other international climate-finance coalitions have lost members, or shut down, amid antitrust and other legal concerns, especially in the United States. Last year, Goldman Sachs, Invesco, State Street and several other big-name finance players left Climate Action 100+, a global engagement group that CEC was partly modelled on.
The UN-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance ceased operations after numerous members, including all large U.S. and Canadian banks, exited the organization.
CEC has taken steps, including creating a secretariat, to avoid sharing of information among its members to assuage any competition concerns, Ms. Zvan said.
“And Canada is very much more receptive to the engagement, I would say, from an environmental point of view. We have the federal government that provides us funding to do the benchmark analysis. We provide our analysis back to the federal government,” she said.