Founding Partners Of The Investor Agenda Publish Updated Investor Climate Action Plans Expectation Ladder

• The seven founding partners of the Investor Agenda have released an updated ICAPs Expectations Ladder
• The ICAPs Expectation Ladder has been updated to ensure that it remains aligned to the latest approaches, existing frameworks, and ICAPs Guidance, as well as incorporating deforestation actions for the first time
• The ICAPs Expectation Ladder is designed for all investors, regardless of where they are on their climate transition, to help investors self-assess where they sit within the ICAPs focus areas

July 11, 2023 – The seven Founding Partners of The Investor Agenda – AIGCC, CDP, Ceres, IGCC, IIGCC, PRI & UNEP FI – have published an updated Investor Climate Action Plans (ICAPs) Expectations Ladder.

The ICAPs Expectations Ladder is intended to help investors act on climate by providing a single, comprehensive framework which draws on existing initiatives and guidance.

Updates include edits to the sub-focus criteria across different tiers and focus areas in line with the latest science and guidance. In addition, deforestation actions have been laid out clearly throughout the tiers to ensure that ICAPs are as comprehensive as possible in their approach.

Net zero targets cannot be met without early action on deforestation. As such, it is critical that effective climate transition plans must tackle deforestation to achieve the goal of a net zero emissions economy by 2050 or sooner. In doing so, investors' action will simultaneously support biodiversity and food security, while mitigating risk for institutions against financial, regulatory, reputational and supply chain and supporting preparations for forthcoming regulations.

The updated Expectations Ladder sets out high level expectations for investors to take on climate action across four focus areas – Investment, Corporate Engagement, Investor Disclosure and Policy Advocacy, with Governance as a cross-cutting theme. The Expectations Ladder is inclusive and designed for all investors, regardless of where they are on their climate change journey. That is why the Expectations Ladder sets out a summary of actions over four tiers from those beginning to think about climate (Tier 4) to the net-zero. standard-setters (Tier 1).

Expectations set out in the Ladder may result in investors:

• Assessing their current approach to managing climate change risk and opportunity
• Publishing a standalone ICAP (often referred to as a climate transition plan or a net zero transition plan)
• Embedding elements of the ICAPs into their climate change strategies, investment beliefs, transition plans, and disclosures
• Communicating their current activities and plans to stakeholders

The ICAPs Expectations Ladder is supported by the ICAPs Guidance, which was updated in July 2022. It is recommended that investors refer to the accompanying ICAPs Guidance document for more detailed information on how to implement the actions set in the Expectations Ladder and how to move across the ICAPs tiers.

The Guidance also contains information on the resources underpinning the Expectations Ladder, including publications from the Investor Agenda Founding Partners, Glasgow Finance Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ), Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAM), the UN-convened Net- Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) and the Paris Aligned Asset Owners (PAAO).

© Scoop Media