Wells Fargo AM Offers Climate Friendly Investment Strategy | Markets | 06/30/2021

Wells Fargo Asset Management announces the launch of the Global Climate Transition Investment Grade Credit Investment Strategy. This should bring the environmental and financial goals into line. The focus is on supporting climate change and the transition to a carbon neutral economy.

The investment strategy is already being used by investors such as the trustee of Britain’s National Employment Savings Trust (Nest), which has consolidated its $2 billion Wells Fargo Asset Management (WFAM) assets into the climate-friendly strategy in line with earlier climate policy. From this year turned. Portfolio management of the investment strategy is carried out by WFAM’s global fixed income team, led by Scott Smith, Head of the Multi-Sector Investment Class, and Henrietta Paquiment, Head of Credit Europe. The team is backed by an international group of more than 70 fixed income analysts.

investment strategy
It combines the classic financial goals of an active investment in fixed income securities with specific climate goals. The focus is on:
Effectively manage security selection to identify those companies that are best in position and ready to transition to a low/carbon neutral world
Targeted use of company exclusions
– Initially, reduce the weighted average carbon density at least 30 percent below the norm
Carbon neutral portfolios by 2050 at the latest
Dialogue with issuers to improve environmental and financial performance

NEST – the UK’s National Provident Fund for Employment – is on board
Deirdre Flood, Head of International Client Group at Wells Fargo Asset Management, said: “At Wells Fargo Asset Management, we believe a responsible response to climate change is to work together to create a carbon neutral economy. We believe that, as asset managers, we can invest in this fundamental change in a targeted manner. So I am proud to announce the Climate Transformation Credit Strategy – which is based on this very basic idea. We are honored to have a significant investor in NEST who believes, like us, that investors need to go beyond tactics like divestment and focus on personalization and should invest specifically in The companies with the most promising initiatives.”

The investment strategy provides stable framework conditions to become carbon neutral
Diandra Soubia, Head of Responsible Investment at Nest, said: “WFAM’s response to our climate policy has been exemplary. WFAM’s investment strategy provides us with stable and measurable framework conditions to gradually become carbon neutral and support climate change in this way we can align our portfolio with our goal of Climate Neutrality As fund managers we need to take the risks of climate change seriously If we don’t act now, climate change will likely hurt our investors severely – most likely in the form of lower retirement returns We appreciate that WFAM is taking a leadership role in combating the risks The climate and the combination of that with the opportunities in fixed income. This means that we can continue to implement our financial goals in this asset class going into the future.” (kilobytes)