Building on its commitment to environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues, CPR AM, a subsidiary of Amundi, is teaming up with CDP to launch a thematic equity fund dedicated to the fight against global warming.
CPR AM has launched a new thematic equities fund that will invest in global equities that best manage climate change-related risks. Managed by global equities fund manager Alexandre Blein, the fund will have an investment universe of 700 stocks encompassing all geographies and all sectors a priori. Investments will be made in companies striving to meet the Paris Agreement’s commitment to maintaining a global temperature rise of under 2 degrees Celsius this century. This is the first time CDP has been involved in the design and creation of an investment fund.
Thanks to this exclusive partnership with this international non-profit organisation CDP, CPR AM combines environmental data disclosure and ESG analysis to determine the investment universe. CDP holds the most comprehensive collection of self-reported environmental data in the world, with 7,000 companies disclosing in 2018.
This innovative collaboration supports CPR AM’s engagement with all companies, regardless of size, to ensure future action on the issue of climate change. By incorporating environmental data from CDP, CPR AM will be able to assess a company’s ability to generate economic value with positive environmental stewardship.
With a focus on sustainability, responsible investing is integrated throughout the fund with a rigorous application of environmental, social and governance criteria. This is underpinned by:
- external climate ratings through CDP and science-based targets (SBT) data;
- an extensive ESG filter at different levels of granularity based on Amundi ratings ;
- an exclusion of high ESG controversies through a third filter
This approach allows CPR AM to analyse companies across all sectors and assess if they are considering climate risk within their corporate strategy and product innovation.
Valérie Baudson, CEO of CPR AM, commented: “This fund offers investors an innovative investment solution to address climate-related financial risks. Reducing global warming requires collective action across the private, public and not-for-profit sectors. Climate change affects all geographies and sectors and we believe companies play a crucial role in ensuring the objectives set in the Paris Agreement are achieved. We take our role as a responsible investor seriously and strive to influence companies’ behaviours to drive positive environmental change, and ultimately portfolio performance”.
Laurent Babikian, Director of Investor Engagement at CDP Europe, commented: “We are delighted to be working with CPR AM on this ground-breaking fund, especially at such a critical time for climate change globally. Corporate transparency on environmental issues is key but this information needs to be priced in and integrated by the market, in order to shift capital at the pace required. The launch of this fund demonstrates that information on corporate climate performance is not only being requested by the market but is being used in investment decision making, in this case through stock selection and screening.”
