Engagement Specialist
• Insight
Robeco commits to mitigate deforestation in portfolios
Deforestation is one of the greatest threats to biodiversity and a major contributor to climate change. Investors can play a role in stopping it by using engagement to target both companies and governments that are responsible for unsustainable destruction of the world’s forests. In a new positioning paper, Robeco spells out how active ownership can help achieve this.
The paper entitled ‘Our approach to deforestation’ outlines three pillars of a commitment to eliminate deforestation driven by high-risk commodities across all Robeco’s investment portfolios by 2025. This forms part of the COP 26 Deforestation Commitment signed by more than 30 financial institutions with collectively more than EUR 8 trillion in assets, including Robeco, at the climate summit in Glasgow in 2021.
Broadening individual stewardship efforts including corporate engagement
Focusing on financial sector collaborative initiatives such as Nature Action 100
Widening engagement with governments in deforestation-afflicted countries
“Deforestation sits at the center of climate change, biodiversity loss, as well as and food and water insecurity, posing a systemic risk to companies and investors,” says engagement specialist Laura Bosch, one of the paper’s authors, in the introduction.
“Wealth and well-being cannot exist without nature. Robeco acknowledges how critical preserving biodiversity and halting deforestation is not only to our long-term value creation, but also to the stability of our socio-economic systems.”
Keep up with the latest sustainable insights
Join our newsletter to explore the trends shaping SI.
