Climate Investing

Robeco’s first sustainable investment portfolio dates back more than 20 years. Today, with solutions from fixed income to equity targeting the long-term effects of global warming, we’re also at the forefront of climate investing. By diving deeper to understand dynamics and impact, our comprehensive sustainable investment approach leads to better-informed investment decisions that also look after the world we live in.

Robeco’s climate solutions take investors on the pathway to net zero. They follow a disciplined course of decarbonization that mirrors the trajectory set out by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. These strategies are therefore aligned with the commitment to invest and behave in a way that strives to keep the temperature rise to well below 2°C above pre-industrial levels, and pursues efforts to limit the temperature increase even further to 1.5°C.

Climate change mitigation is integrated in the investment process across multiple components, from exclusion of fossil fuels to bottom-up stock and issuer analysis to portfolio construction. The ultimate goal aims to make client portfolios climate-proof by reducing their exposure to carbon risk and steering them towards climate readiness.

Climate investing and achieving carbon reduction requires forward-looking data. Therefore, where possible we incorporate other types of forward-looking data in order to help estimate companies’ climate preparedness and future climate-adjusted performance. Acquiring the data needed to track the levels of emissions is still a challenge. Nevertheless, it should not stop us from moving forward, knowing the industry is working hard to get more and better quality emission data.

We invest in companies that we believe will thrive in the transition and expand engagement with those that are not moving fast enough. Based on our long-standing experience in active ownership, we believe this will not only contribute to society, but also to better-informed investment decisions. We ask companies to implement a strong climate governance framework, to take action to reduce carbon emissions, and to improve their reporting related to climate change.

Robeco’s Sustainable Investing Center of Expertise acts as the focal point for our sustainable investment activities such as climate investing. In total, the center comprises over 45 sustainable investing professionals, including a dedicated Climate Strategist and Climate Data Scientist. It also comprises an Active Ownership team that engages with companies and governments on a wide range of financially material ESG topics including climate, SDGs and biodiversity.

The sustainability specialists work closely together with over 200 investment professionals on integrating sustainability into investment portfolios.

The strategy targets sustainable investments: it has sustainable investment as its objective and targets themes such as energy or mobility, the UN’s SDGs or climate change. Moreover, it follows a stricter exclusion list. Under the EU Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation it is classified as Article 9.