Global institutional funds manager IFM Investors infrastructure portfolio’s financed emissions represented over 3,000,000 tonnes of carbon dioxide in FY2017, according to its 2018 Infrastructure Carbon Footprint Report.
Released yesterday, the report revealed that of this, 2,619,353 tonnes were from its global infrastructure portfolio and 540,702 tonnes from its Australian counterpart.
This represented a decline in carbon emissions intensity, meaning the tonnes of carbon dioxide emitted per million dollars invested. For global infrastructure, there was a 16 per cent decrease in IFM’s carbon intensity, and for Australian infrastructure, there was a 13.6 per cent drop.
IFM Investors cited not just environmental concern but also the investment risk of climate change as key drivers of its push to reduce emissions, saying that its environmental, social and economic consequences could impact value of the short, medium and long-term.
“Setting reduction targets and being accountable to these targets is key to protecting our investment value and delivering environmental benefits for society,” the firm’s executive director of responsible investment, Chris Newton, said.
Australia is becoming increasingly recognised as an attractive investment opportunity against global counterparts, recent analysis has found.
Pension funds in Australia and the UK are embracing recent developments that will facilitate the deployment of superannuation capital toward the energy transition in both countries.
With the Goldman Sachs’ S&P 500 long-term outlook occupying headlines over recent days, an Aussie economist has weighed in, noting that, while difficult to time, the US market is poised for a downturn.
The appetite for digital infrastructure has grown significantly among Australia’s superannuation funds, with assets like data centres, fibre optic networks, and telecommunications now viewed as strategic investments in their portfolios.