Launched in 2017, Climate Action 100+ is the world’s largest investor-led initiative focused on engaging 170 of the largest corporate greenhouse gas emitters to reduce emissions, improve governance, and strengthen climate-related financial disclosures. Coordinated by five member networks, Climate Action 100+ supports signatories in their corporate stewardship activities to create long-term shareholder value. In June 2023, Climate Action 100+ launched its phase two strategy. Running until 2030, this phase expands the ways investors can participate and calls on companies to implement climate transition action plans, detailing how they will achieve the core goals of the initiative.

Climate change and the decarbonization of the global economy are systemic and complex challenges that are best addressed through a common response and collaborative action between key stakeholders globally. From an investor’s perspective, climate risks are financial risks. Alignment around high-level goals – as set out by Climate Action 100+ – is an impactful and effective way for investors to send signals to companies and other stakeholders to help manage these risks. This is done to preserve long-term shareholder value for their clients and beneficiaries, in line with their fiduciary duties. Indeed, investors have stated that Climate Action 100+ actively helps them in fulfilling their fiduciary duties.    

Climate Action 100+’s core goals make for more effective engagement (whether collaboratively or individually) as they provide clarity over investors’ expectations of companies. Similarly, collaborative engagement via Climate Action 100+ is also more efficient and constructive from a company perspective. The initiative provides signatories with expert networks, data-driven frameworks, and engagement cases that expand investors’ capacity for research. This supports peer exchange, sharing of expertise, learnings and best practice for investors – while expecting investors to act independently and comply with relevant information exchange laws.  

Building on its success of its first phase, Climate Action 100+ has expanded the ways investors can meaningfully participate in engagements, including via thematic and sector engagements. Investors choosing to participate in the new thematic and sector workstreams can work with companies, policymakers and/or other stakeholders to overcome barriers to transition – for example, technological advancements, such as those on green steel and cement or sustainable aviation fuels, and topics, such as addressing methane leakage. All Climate Action 100+ engagement opportunities are intended to further support investors in understanding and managing climate risks and opportunities.

It is a foundational principle of the initiative that investors are independent fiduciaries responsible for their own investment and voting decisions and must always act completely independently to set their own strategies, policies and practices based on their own best interests. The use of engagement tools and tactics, including the scope of participation in Climate Action 100+ engagements are at the discretion of each individual investor. How investors choose to manage climate risk and set their individual strategies, policies and practices and their Climate Action 100+ related activity is for them to decide. 

Over the last seven years, investors in Climate Action 100+ have achieved remarkable progress in driving the business transition to a net zero emissions economy. They have set the industry standard for corporate climate ambition and action – by sponsoring development of the first-of-its kind Net Zero Company Benchmark. The most recent benchmark found that 77% of focus companies have pledged to achieve net zero emissions by 2050 or earlier, covering at least Scope 1 and 2 emissions. Additionally, 93% of focus companies have implemented board committee oversight of climate change risks and opportunities, while 90% of focus companies have explicitly committed to aligning their disclosures with the Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures’ (TCFD) recommendations. 

The initiative is open to asset owners, asset managers and engagement service providers formally representing assets. Asset managers and engagement service providers formally representing assets can only join as investor participants. Asset owners can join as investor supporters or investor participants. Investor participants are responsible for participating directly in Climate Action 100+ engagements. They can join as: 

Lead company investors: The main role of lead company investors is to drive the Climate Action 100+ engagement agenda with their focus companies. 

Contributing company investors: The main role of contributing investors is to proactively support lead company investors in their engagements.  

Individual engagers: Signatories may formally engage focus companies on the goals of Climate Action 100+ on their own and without participating in meetings that include other signatories, if they fulfil certain conditions and meet reporting requirements. 

Today, signatories can also participate in thematic and sector engagement. All engagement is undertaken in line with the following disclaimer.  

Investor supporters are asset owners who publicly support Climate Action 100+ as well as its goals and objectives, but do not participate directly in engagements with focus companies. However, they are encouraged to request that their investment managers or service providers with responsibility for engagement join the initiative. More information is available in the Climate Action 100+ Signatory Handbook here.  

A minimum requirement for investor participants in Climate Action 100+ is to join a contributing engagement team for at least one focus company, theme, or sector each year or engage at least one focus company as a formal individual engager. Signatories must also be a member of one of the five investor networks – the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), Ceres, Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). 

The work of the initiative is supported by five investor networks: the Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), Ceres, Investor Group on Climate Change (IGCC), Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI). The networks, as cofounders of the initiative, provide secretariat support for investors, help facilitate initiative meetings, help arrange sector-level working group calls, provide technical assistance and create opportunities for engagement skills enhancement. 

Investor networks do not act or speak on behalf of each other or Climate Action 100+ signatories. They also do not seek directly or indirectly, either on their own or another’s behalf, the power to act as proxy for a security holder and do not furnish or otherwise request or act on behalf of a person who furnishes or requests, a form of revocation, abstention, consent or authorization. In addition, the investor network entities do not provide investment or voting recommendations and they do not provide investment, legal, accounting or tax advice. 

No. Climate Action 100+ is a voluntary initiative and investors are bound by their own policies which may be informed by theirregulatory environment and agreements with clients.