{"id":244157,"date":"2025-10-27T20:27:12","date_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:27:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/244157\/"},"modified":"2025-10-27T20:27:12","modified_gmt":"2025-10-27T20:27:12","slug":"europes-biggest-asset-manager-joins-canadian-investor-climate-coalition","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/244157\/","title":{"rendered":"Europe\u2019s biggest asset manager joins Canadian investor climate coalition"},"content":{"rendered":"

Open this photo in gallery:<\/a><\/p>\n

Amundi\u2019s entry into CEC coincides with a Canadian expansion led by its parent company Cr\u00e9dit Agricole, the French bank.Philippe Wojazer\/Reuters<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

Paris-based Amundi has signed up with Climate Engagement Canada as an international supporter. An industry-led initiative focused on decarbonizing the country\u2019s 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\u2019s industries. The group was founded in 2021 with 27 investor-members.<\/p>\n

Jean-Jacques Barb\u00e9ris, director of Amundi\u2019s institutional and corporate clients division as well as ESG, said the company\u2019s engagement efforts with companies globally align with what CEC promotes \u2013 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s 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\u2019s also why I would say we\u2019re happy to be part of it now,\u201d Mr. Barb\u00e9ris said in an interview during a recent trip to Montreal.<\/p>\n

Amundi\u2019s entry into CEC coincides with a Canadian expansion led by its parent company Cr\u00e9dit Agricole, the French bank. <\/p>\n

CEC members are focused on meeting with the boards and management teams of Canada\u2019s 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.<\/p>\n

The group also publishes an annual benchmarking study.<\/p>\n

Many Canadian institutions, such as AGF Management, TD Asset Management, RBC Global Asset Management, Alberta Investment Management Corp. and Manulife Investment Management, are members.<\/p>\n

Amundi, with more than \u20ac2.2-trillion ($3.6-trillion) of assets under management, joins a growing number of international participants, including BNP Paribas Asset Management, California Public Employees\u2019 Retirement System, California State Teachers\u2019 Retirement System, New York State Teachers\u2019 Retirement System and Nordea Life & Pension Group.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a great illustration of international investors having interest in Canada and seeing the effectiveness of engagement. Amundi has a great engagement program,\u201d said Barbara Zvan, chief executive officer of University Pension Plan Ontario and chair of CEC.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo having someone with that level of credibility and experience is a huge asset for us.\u201d<\/p>\n

The shift under way in the global pension sphere to defined-contribution from defined-benefit plans is playing a big role in driving Amundi\u2019s expansion, Mr. Barb\u00e9ris said.<\/p>\n

Early this year, it won a \u00a320-billion mandate with The People\u2019s Pension (TPP), one of Britain\u2019s largest retirement funds. Amundi touted a strategy that incorporates climate-related criteria. It is also providing the fund with sustainability data, reporting and analytics.<\/p>\n

\u201cTPP 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,\u201d Mr. Barb\u00e9ris said. \u201cSo for us, really, the development of this market is promising in Canada.\u201d<\/p>\n

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.<\/p>\n

The UN-backed Net-Zero Banking Alliance ceased operations after numerous members, including all large U.S. and Canadian banks, exited the organization.<\/p>\n

CEC has taken steps, including creating a secretariat, to avoid sharing of information among its members to assuage any competition concerns, Ms. Zvan said. <\/p>\n

\u201cAnd 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,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Open this photo in gallery: Amundi\u2019s entry into CEC coincides with a Canadian expansion led by its parent…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":244158,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[901,888,902,879,877,903,49,48,876,895,896,891,878,875,46,549,295,894,887,914,880,881,893,889,890,884,904,885,909,910,44,912,907,911,905,908,882,898,899,714,897,906,865,61,900,892,886,883,913],"class_list":["post-244157","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-canada","tag-alberta","tag-arts-news","tag-bc","tag-breaking-news","tag-breaking-news-video","tag-british-columbia","tag-ca","tag-canada","tag-canada-news","tag-canada-sports","tag-canada-sports-news","tag-canada-trafficcanada-weather","tag-canadian-breaking-news","tag-canadian-news","tag-economy","tag-education","tag-environment","tag-federal-government","tag-foreign-news","tag-globe-and-mail","tag-globe-and-mail-breaking-news","tag-globe-and-mail-canada-news","tag-government","tag-life-news","tag-lifestyle","tag-local-news","tag-manitoba","tag-national-news","tag-new-brunswick","tag-newfoundland-and-labrador","tag-news","tag-northwest-territories","tag-nova-scotia","tag-nunavut","tag-ontario","tag-pei","tag-photos","tag-political-news","tag-political-opinion","tag-politics","tag-politics-news","tag-quebec","tag-sports-news","tag-technology","tag-travel","tag-trudeau","tag-us-news","tag-world-news","tag-yukon"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244157","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=244157"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/244157\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/244158"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=244157"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=244157"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=244157"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}