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Ep 99: Anne Simpson, Director of Board Governance & Strategy at CalPERS
Published 6 years ago
Description
In today’s episode, we cover:
- What is CalPERS, its origins and its mission?
- How its priorities and concerns about climate change is rooted in its fiduciary responsibility to pensioners current and future
- Anne’s career at CalPERS and early work focusing on corporate governance
- What CalPERS learned from the 2008 financial crisis and how it informs its perspective and priorities regarding climate change
- CalPERS’ ten “Pension Beliefs” that define its investment strategy
- How being a longterm investor is both an advantage and a responsibility
- Avoiding the curse of short-termism and how simply following the money isn’t sufficient
- How CalPERS views types of capital beyond the financial
- How Anne developed a strategy for sustainable investment
- CalPERS’ top three sustainability factors (diversity & inclusion, demographics and climate change)
- The role CalPERS plays as a climate change advocate
- How it leverages its shareholder position to influence companies to be in accord with The Paris Agreement
- Research done to better understand the portfolio’s contributions to emissions
- Work performed to assess climate-risk among CalPERS’ assets
- The fund’s emissions commitments over the next thirty years
- The double-edged sword of divesting from companies not meeting climate goals
Links to topics discussed in this episode:
- CalPERS: https://www.calpers.ca.gov/
- CalPERS Pension Beliefs: https://www.calpers.ca.gov/docs/board-agendas/201702/pension/item7-01.pdf
- Climate Action 100+: http://www.climateaction100.org/
- The Investor Agenda: https://theinvestoragenda.org/
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*Editing and post-production work for this episode was provided by The Podcast Consultant