© Reuters. FILE PHOTO: Smoke and steam rise from the chimney of a steel plant in Smederevo, Serbia, October 23, 2019. REUTERS/Marko Djurica/File Photo
By Simon Jessop
LONDON (Reuters) – Invesco on Friday became the fifth major U.S. investor to exit or reduce its participation in the Climate Action 100+ investor coalition, which aims to pressure heavily polluting companies to reduce their carbon emissions.
The move follows a decision by the fund arms of JPMorgan and state street (NYSE and bond giant Pimco will leave in recent weeks, while BlackRock (NYSE reduced its stake in the group.
The decision by Invesco, which manages $1.6 trillion in assets, and the others to leave came as CA100+ prepares to roll out Phase 2 of its participation plan, in which members would put more pressure on companies to that reduce their emissions.
Coalitions like CA100+ have been criticized by some US Republican politicians for potentially violating antitrust law, although in a statement last week CA100+ said it was confident that was not the case.
Despite that, and “after careful consideration,” Invesco said in a statement that it had “decided to withdraw from the Climate Action 100+ initiative because we believe that our customers' interests in this area are best served through our current initiative led by investors and clients. approach focused on the participation of the issuer”.
A CA100+ spokesperson said the group continued to have the backing and support of hundreds of investors around the world, including asset owners.
“This is supported by the 60 new signatories with approximately $3 trillion in AUM (assets under management) who have joined since the launch of phase two, further highlighting the current strong demand for investor-led climate action “.
