The paper entitled ‘Our approach to deforestation’ outlines three pillars of a commitment to eliminate deforestation driven by high-risk commodities across all Robeco’s investment portfolios by 2025. This forms part of the COP 26 Deforestation Commitment signed by more than 30 financial institutions with collectively more than EUR 8 trillion in assets, including Robeco, at the climate summit in Glasgow in 2021.

• Broadening individual stewardship efforts including corporate engagement

• Focusing on financial sector collaborative initiatives such as Nature Action 100

• Widening engagement with governments in deforestation-afflicted countries

“Deforestation sits at the center of climate change, biodiversity loss, as well as and food and water insecurity, posing a systemic risk to companies and investors,” says engagement specialist Laura Bosch, one of the paper’s authors, in the introduction.

“Wealth and well-being cannot exist without nature. Robeco acknowledges how critical preserving biodiversity and halting deforestation is not only to our long-term value creation, but also to the stability of our socio-economic systems.”