27 February 2019

Investec launches global environment strategy

Published by Money Management – 27th Feb 2019

Investec Asset Management has launched its new global environment strategy which will invest in public companies benefitting from the trend towards decarbonisation and will aim to help institutional investors with opportunities around long-term portfolio decarbonisation investments.

Additionally, it would provide investors with exposure to a $2.5 trillion growth opportunities which arise from the world’s power generation mix transitions and decarbonisation, together with the unknown impact of climate change.

In particular, the strategy would focus on companies participating in the sustainable transition towards decarbonisation, redressing the balance of structural underexposure to the enables and beneficiaries of decarbonisation and finally, providing a means by which to measure and hedge against systemic carbon risk in portfolios.

This would include an investment universe of selected 700 companies with a total market cap of US$5 trillion.

In order to be qualified, the companies would need to go through a two-stage selection process, including measuring their environmental revenues and ‘carbon avoided’, it said.

The strategy would be run by portfolio managers, Deirdre Cooper and Graeme Baker.

The firm’s co-chief executive, John Green, said: “Humanity faces an unprecedented challenge: to transition quickly to a carbon-free growth model, ultimately to a more sustainable world.

“Because of this, the case for investing in public companies that tackle climate risk is a mainstream investment priority,” he said.