NZIF recommends the following advanced actions. These may initially be difficult but would likely prove beneficial:
- Participate in regulator-industry initiatives to develop voluntary and mandatory standards of transition plans and other disclosures, such as Paris-aligned accounts.
- Participate in investor industry network associations to advance knowledge around benchmarking portfolios with the Paris Agreement goals.
- Engage with existing and potential asset managers to encourage managers to provide strategies and products to achieve asset owners’ net zero investment goals.
- Engage private data vendors to pursue assessments that are consistent with alignment criteria within the latest detailed guidance on indicators from the Climate Action 100+ Net Zero Company Benchmark.
- Engage private data vendors to pursue data on scope 3 emissions that details which categories are used within assessments and their accuracy disclosed.
- Undertake participation in activities of the investor networks to facilitate knowledge creation relating to net zero investment.
- Communicate expectations relating to alignment criteria across asset classes (e.g. pre-issuance of bonds).
- Engage with index providers to provide benchmarks better aligned with net zero.
- Engage with providers of bond indices that may inadvertently require investors to purchase new bonds irrespective of climate impacts.
- Encourage through signalling, early-stage investing, or other methods for compatible firms to make it to the IPO stage.
- Encourage credit rating agencies, sell-side analysts, and fund managers to incorporate climate-related risk factors into financial analysis.
- Advocate for the development of contextually specific sector transition pathways which can be used to assess the alignment of investments.