Morgan Stanley, Pimco Add Weight to Macron Climate Finance Plan

(Bloomberg) -- Morgan Stanley Investment Management and Pacific Investment Management Co. are among 15 asset managers and sovereign wealth funds that pledged support for a French initiative to encourage the world’s largest investors to integrate climate change into their decision-making.

The One Planet project also drew in AXA Investment Managers, Legal & General Investment Management, Invesco Ltd. and UBS Asset Management, according to a statement Friday after French President Emmanuel Macron met with finance executives. Nine state funds, including Korea Investment Corp. and Abu Dhabi’s Mubadala Investment Co., signed up to an initiative now backed by over $30 trillion of assets.

Mobilizing private capital to support a pivot away from fossil fuel dependency was a key goal of the 2015 Paris climate accord and has led many of the world’s biggest money managers to pledge their resources. There are now multiple finance industry coalitions, with firms pooling expertise behind the push to limit global warming.

An initial group started the One Planet Sovereign Wealth Funds project in 2017, including Norges Bank Investment Management, to develop a framework for factoring in climate change to their analysis for risks and opportunities. In the meeting with Macron, the executives said the lack of a universal reporting standard on climate risk was “a systemic barrier” to implementing that.

The executives are aiming to make recommendations from the Task Force on Climate-Related Financial Disclosures into the global reporting standard. Those consider both the physical risks of global warming as well as the threats to operations and asset values. Michael Bloomberg, the founder and majority shareholder of Bloomberg LP, the parent company of Bloomberg News, is the task force’s chair.

CEOs of five private investment firms, including Carlyle Group Inc., also established the One Planet Private Equity Funds initiative to develop greater understanding of climate-related risks and opportunities.

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