Swedbank Robur Says It’s First Out With ‘Paris Aligned’ Funds

(Bloomberg) -- Swedbank Robur, the asset management arm of one of Sweden’s biggest lenders, says some of its funds have broken new ground by being formally aligned with the 2015 Paris Agreement on climate change.

“As far as we can see, we are the first fund company securing and classifying funds as Paris Aligned according to the EU Sustainable Finance climate benchmark approach,” said Liza Jonson, Swedbank Robur’s Chief Executive Officer, in emailed comments.

To meet the requirement, the carbon emission footprint in the firm’s Robur Access Edge funds needs to be at least 50% lower than the market in general, Swedbank Robur said in a statement. And companies that a fund invests in have to cut their emissions by an average of 7% per year.

“Transparency and the possibility to compare climate footprints of different kinds of funds are a central part of our work with sustainability,” Jonson said.

So far, five funds have been given the classification at Swedbank Robur: Access Edge Global, Access Edge Emerging Markets, Access Edge Sweden, Access Edge Japan and Access Edge USA.

Swedbank Robur is aiming for its entire managed portfolio -- which exceeds 1,000 billion kronor ($112 billion) -- to be in line with the Paris Agreement’s target to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius in 2025, and with zero emissions for the entire portfolio by 2040.

While the asset manager expects more of its roughly 80 funds to eventually receive this particular classification, others will take a different route toward meeting climate targets.

One such area is “thematic funds that invest mainly in transition companies that may have higher emissions today but where we see that the products and services offered will contribute to a more sustainable future,” Jonson said.

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