AG2R La Mondiale has once again been named pension fund of the year, with judges praising its commitment to ESG shown in its entry. It follows a year of efforts by the French pension institution to tighten its climate policy, the phasing out fossil fuels and non-conventional hydrocarbons in line with its intermediate temperature targets, and embedding a socially responsible investment strategy across its portfolio.
As of end-2023, the pension fund manager had committed €210 million ($224.6 million) of its €300 million allocation committed to the energy transition, deployed across private equity, debt and infrastructure vehicles.
In its real estate portfolio comprising 200 assets representing 700,000m2, the pension fund set out to improve the environmental certifications across 70% of its new and renovated buildings by 2025 – marking an increase of 61% in 2022 – and reducing energy consumption across the portfolio.
The fund has also increased the share of sustainable bonds within its total bond purchases over the past 12 months, accounting for 21% of its total bond purchases, up from 19% in 2022 and 17% in 2021.The sustainability-linked component of its portfolio has also grown from €293 million in 2022 to €425 million in 2023, and is part of the group's ambition to encourage sustainability initiatives by French businesses.
"This commitment to sustainability has been deployed by AG2R La Mondiale since 2016 within a framework structured by the French Energy Transition Act, by a responsible investment charter adopted in 2016, the exclusion policies that complement it (tobacco, controversial weapons), a climate policy, strengthened several times since its initial 2020 version, and a shareholder engagement and voting policy," said Jean-Louis Charles, chief investment officer at AG2R La Mondiale.
