July 7, 2022 – Today, the Founding Partners of The Investor Agenda released new guidance to enable investors around the world to step up action to tackle the climate crisis and accelerate the transition to a net-zero economy.
The latest guidance is an accompanying document to the existing Investor Climate Action Plans (ICAPs) Expectations Ladder. The ICAPs Guidance document highlights best practices for investors in developing and publishing ambitious climate action plans. It also helps investors self-assess which tier they are on along the ICAPs Expectations Ladder, understand the main actions they can take to strengthen their approach, communicate this information to colleagues, and navigate a growing number of climate-related investor initiatives and reporting expectations.
Investors can access the updated ICAPs Guidance document on the Investor Agenda website here.
The ICAPs Guidance includes a set of resources to inform the development of ICAPs. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all tools and guidance but provides an indication of the available resources.
Some specific updates to the ICAPs Guidance document include:
- Tiers mobility and progress – how investors can determine which tier they are in for each of the ICAPs focus areas, as well as more comprehensive detail on how to move across tiers.
- Asset class – how ICAPs can be applied in several core asset classes, including fixed income, private equity and infrastructure.
- Tools and methodologies – how investors can use specific tools and methodologies both to get started and to rapidly accelerate action to net zero.
- Sector level guidance – setting out why sector engagement is critical for investors and how this engagement can lead to real economy impact.
- New resources – recognising and providing new resources on topics of increasing importance, such as nature & biodiversity and adaptation & resilience.
In May 2021, the Investor Agenda released the ICAPs Expectation Ladder and Guidance – a framework to encourage investor action across four key focus areas: investment, corporate engagement, policy advocacy and investor disclosure, with governance as a cross-cutting theme across all areas. The ICAPs Expectations Ladder establishes four tiers of sequential accomplishment, from those beginning to think about climate change (Tier 4) to the investors who have made net-zero commitments and are well along the path to setting and implementing science-based targets (Tier 1).
Together, the ICAPs Expectation Ladder and Guidance provide investors with clear steps they can take to support the global goal of achieving a net-zero emissions economy by 2050 or sooner.
“We released the ICAPs Guidance document to help raise investor climate ambition,” said Kirsten Spalding, Senior Program Director, Investor Network at Ceres, and ICAPs Working Group Chair at the Investor Agenda. “It is a great resource for investors just starting their journey to help them develop and publish ICAPs, while those that have already begun their journey can use the guidance to accelerate their own climate actions to bring transition to a net zero economy closer.”
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About The Investor Agenda
The Investor Agenda is a common leadership agenda on the climate crisis that is unifying, comprehensive, and focused on accelerating investor action for a net-zero emissions economy. The founding partners of The Investor Agenda are seven major groups working with investors: Asia Investor Group on Climate Change, CDP, Ceres, Investor Group on Climate Change, Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change, Principles for Responsible Investment and UNEP Finance Initiative.
