The California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS), one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S., with over USD310bn in assets, announced a series of climate-focused investment initiatives and commitments, including a pledge to reduce greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its investment portfolio by 2030. The new commitment follows the establishment last year by CalSTRS of a target to achieve a net zero emissions portfolio by 2050, and forms part of its newly implemented “total fund plan,” which recognizes that “climate change presents material risks to all sectors of the global economy and all asset classes.” In addition to its 2030 portfolio emissions reduction goal, CalSTRS introduced commitments to adopt processes for the incorporation of emissions into investment decisions as part of risk-and-return analyses and potential impacts on plan funding, allocate 20% of its public equity portfolio to a low-carbon index, and to integrate climate scenarios into its asset-liability modeling framework to help guide investment decisions.

Source: ESG Today