Pensions for Purpose was delighted to invite Paris Alignment Forum members to this online all-stakeholder member-only event on 16 November 2022.

In this session, we reflected on the experiences of large (£5bn plus) corporate pension funds and all authorised DC schemes, who from 1 October 2021, have been subject to the climate change governance regulations to publish a report in alignment with the Taskforce for Climate Related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) framework within seven months of their financial year-end.

The Pensions Regulator (TPR) has been collating climate reports from the largest corporate pension schemes and DC schemes over the past year. Brendan Walshe, Principal, Investment Regulatory Policy, Analysis and Advice, at TPR, shared their early views of the reports, and give advice to smaller corporate pension schemes on how to prepare for reporting, as their deadlines approach.

Jeremy Hughes, Senior Pensions Secretary of the Local Government Pension Scheme (LGPS) Advisory Board, then talk about the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities' consultation 'Governance and reporting of climate change risks' for the LGPS and the proposed regulations for funds to assess, manage and report on climate-related risks, in line with the recommendations of the TCFD.

This was then followered by a Q&A moderated by Karen Shackleton of Pensions for Purpose

We then moved to breakout rooms of mixed stakeholders, led by our sponsors Invesco and Redington, to discuss the following questions:

1. What are the main challenges for pension funds looking to prepare a climate report in line with TCFD recommendations & how might these be mitigated?
2. Who should asset owners turn to (e.g., investment consultants, climate scientists, modelling experts) for expert analytical advice on climate reporting i.e., gathering data, implied temperature rise and scenario analysis?
3. How can pension funds use the findings to improve their climate action strategies, whilst still meeting their fiduciary responsibilities?

In the usual way, we then regrouped and our sponsors shared insights from the breakout room discussions before Jeremy Hughes and Brendan Walshe wrapped the session up.

You can watch a video of the presentations by clicking on the 'Learn more here' button below or read a write-up of the event here. 

Agenda

The agenda for this online interactive discussion was the following:

Welcome from Pensions for Purpose and housekeeping.

Keynote presentation from Jeremy Hughes, LGPS, and Brendan Walshe, TPR.

Mixed breakout rooms moderated by our forum sponsors, Redington and Invesco, to discuss key questions.

Return to main meeting – to share insights.

Speaker biographies

Jeremy Hughes, Senior Pensions Secretary, Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board

Jeremy joined the pension's team at the Local Government Association after five years in the LGPS Policy Team at the Department of Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC), where he was responsible for a range of policy development and stewardship issues, including exit pay reform and taking through a number of amending statutory instruments (on mergers and benefit changes). Before working in the pensions team, he held roles in the Civil Service , mainly focused on local government finance and policy. He advised Ministers on challenges as diverse as social care funding, public sector property management and local audit reform. He was also a PSC trade union member and activist during his time in that department. Presently, Jeremy supports the LGA's Head of Pensions and is Deputy Secretary to the Local Government Pension Scheme Advisory Board and its various sub-committees.

Brendan Walshe, Principal – Investment, The Pensions Regulator

Brendan joined The Pensions Regulator (TPR) in March 2015 and is a Principal within the Regulator's Investment Consulting Team. In this role, Brendan acts as an adviser at TPR and gives advice on DB investment and funding strategies and contributes to the regulation of DC pension schemes. Brendan also provides specialist investment input to TPR's regulatory policy and publications, including DB and DC Codes of Practice and regulatory guidance and a range of blogs. Recently this has included developing of TPR's climate guidance, an interim regime for DB Superfunds, to the CMA review and the review of pension scheme TCFD reports. Before he joined the regulator, Brendan worked with leading consultancies advising private and public sector clients on pension scheme investment, risk management and governance. Brendan speaks regularly at industry conferences and contributes to industry publications. Brendan is a Fellow of the Institute of Actuaries and has contributes to a range of Institute working parties.

Paris Alignment Forum

The Paris Alignment Forum was established by Pensions for Purpose to help pension funds and other asset owners on their journey towards alignment with the goals of the Paris Agreement. We do this by sharing climate-related thought leadership written by our Influencer members (asset managers, consultants and lawyers), by running free training workshops for trustees and by engaging in industry-wide conversation through our quarterly all-stakeholder and asset-owner events. To join the Paris Alignment Forum please email Karen Shackleton.