Can investors save the planet? NZAMI and fiduciary duty

Unofficial AI-generated summary based on the public title and abstract. Not an official translation.

🔬研究者:Provides a framework for analyzing the efficacy and fiduciary risks of net-zero investment strategies.

🏢実務担当者:Guidance on aligning net-zero commitments with fiduciary duties and client mandates.

🏛政策担当者:Insights into the limitations of voluntary initiatives and the need for regulatory clarity.

Key points Asset manager signatories of the Net Zero Asset Manager Initiative, part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero, have committed to investing in line with the Race to Zero goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C with limited or no overshoot. Given that a recent report from United Nations Environment Programme says that there is ‘no credible pathway’ in place to 1.5°C, we explore the implications for asset managers, as fiduciaries, of investing in line with a climate scenario that might now be considered an unlikely future outcome. We assess common ‘net zero aligned’ investment strategies such as portfolio decarbonization, tilting, active ownership, ESG integration and impact investing by reference to considerations of fiduciary duty and real-world efficacy at combatting climate change. We find that the more likely a strategy is to deliver real-world change in carbon emissions in line with the 1.5°C goal, the more likely it is to give rise to fiduciary concerns. Although these fiduciary concerns are unlikely in most cases to give rise to enforceable legal liability, it is likely that many asset managers, when applying an expected standard of fiduciary duty, will conclude that such strategies are not consistent with that duty in the absence of an explicit authorizing mandate from clients. As a result, the strategies most likely to be adopted are also the least likely to contribute meaningfully to addressing climate change. We set out ways in which the commitments could be reframed so as to maximize real-world impact of the initiative in the fight against climate change while avoiding conflicts with the fiduciary duties of signatories. Key to this is aligning commitments to a more realistic climate scenario than 1.5°C with limited or no overshoot. The battle against climate change is widely recognized as being amongst the most important challenges facing society. All of us are being asked to play our part, and that includes business and the financial sector. In a show of dedication to the cause, a group of banks, asset owners, asset managers and insurers famously came together at COP26, convened by Mark Carney, to announce the formation of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ). The boldness of the claim made at its launch was striking:1 Today, through the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), over $130 trillion of private capital is committed to transforming the economy for net zero. These commitments, from over 450 firms across 45 countries, can deliver the estimated $100 trillion of finance needed for net zero over the next three decades. 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• openalex https://doi.org/10.1093/cmlj/kmad002first seen 2026-08-02 16:59:09