The U.K. Parliament's Environmental Audit Committee wrote to the country's 25 biggest pension funds, questioning how they manage risks that climate change poses to pension savings, the committee said March 5.
The pension funds include BT Pension Scheme, HSBC Holdings Plc and those managing retirement savings for Britain's universities, Reuters said noted in a same-day report.
"We want to know what pension funds are doing to safeguard people's pensions from the financial risks of climate change," committee Chair Mary Creagh said, adding that the committee is looking at whether the pension funds are taking risks into account in their financial decision making.
The concerned pension funds collectively manage more than £550 billion in assets, according to Reuters.
The move comes after the Department for Work and Pensions admitted that there is "widespread misunderstanding [among] trustees on the scope of their fiduciary duty in relation to environmental risks," and amid a growing pressure from global policymakers for investors to participate more in mitigating the impacts of climate change, Reuters noted.
Meanwhile, Luke Hildyard, policy lead for stewardship and corporate governance at the Pensions and Lifetime Savings Association, told the newswire that climate change's threat to pension fund investments is "definitely an issue that trustees should be making time to discuss and seeking advice on."
