Make My Money Matter (MMMM), a UK-based environmental non-profit group, has launched new guidance outlining how pension funds can remove deforestation, conversion and associated human rights abuses from their portfolios. To achieve deforestation-free pensions, the guidance’s steps consist of mapping risks, setting an effective policy, monitoring and engaging, disclosing, and eventually eliminating deforestation, conversion and associated human rights abuses. There is currently £300 billion in capital from UK pensions linked to deforestation, MMMM said, noting that 77% of British savers would be unhappy if they discovered their pension is funding deforestation. The guide was co-created by MMMM, SystemIQ and Global Canopy and received further input from a working group of 12 pension funds, including the Environment Agency Pension Fund, Nest, and Scottish Widows. Huw Davies, MMMM’s Senior Finance Officer, said: “We now need to see pension funds embrace this guidance and set about tackling deforestation with an urgency befitting the crisis that the world’s forests face.”
Today we're launching the world’s first deforestation guidance for pension funds 🚨
£300bn of UK pensions is linked to deforestation. Together with @GlobalCanopy, @SYSTEMIQ_Ltd & 12 pension funds, we’ve set out how to tackle this ✊
More: https://t.co/hdAAszqH7W(1/6) pic.twitter.com/CdLoy71ZMi
— Make My Money Matter (@MMMoneyMatter) July 12, 2022
