Taiwan’s Bureau of Labor Funds (BLF) is planning a US$2.3 billion global climate change equities mandate tracking benchmarks related to the Paris climate accord, which it claims will be the “first of its kind” among Asian pension funds.
The request for proposal for the Global Climate Change Equity tender is scheduled to be issued in the first quarter of 2022, with selection procedures planned for the second quarter.
“The BLF expects this programme will encourage other institutional investors to emphasise environmental sustainability. In this way, we can do our best to achieve environmental sustainability together,” it says in a statement on December 24.
Signatories to the 2015 Paris Agreement pledged to keep global warming during the 21st century well below 2 degrees Celsius above pre-industrial levels, and if possible, below 1.5 degrees Celsius, and achieve net zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
The BLF pointed out that it has been committed to socially responsible investments “for many years” by integrating environmental, social and governance factors into its investments.
Most recently, in November, it hired six foreign and Taiwanese fund managers, including Cathay Securities Investment Trust Co and Fubon Asset Management, for a NT$48 billion ($1.73 billion) corporate social responsibility absolute return domestic investment mandate.
Meanwhile, the BLF says stocks will be the main focus of asset allocation plans in 2022 for the eight labour pension and annuities funds that it supervises.
The funds had $197.84 billion of combined assets as of October 2021.