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(Adds CEO comments)
Oct 4 (Reuters) - Phoenix Group laid out new carbon
reduction targets on Monday, which it said will cut the emission
intensity of 250 billion pounds ($338.75 billion) of investments
by at least half in less than a decade.
The blue-chip life insurer, which invested over 700 million
pounds in sustainable assets in the first half of 2021, double
the amount from a year earlier, said the interim targets were
part of its goal to achieve net zero carbon for investments by
2050.
"Across all the portfolios what we will be looking to do is
to be engaging with companies. It is not a case of excluding
those companies that don't have a good carbon footprint because
we want to work with them to help them make their industry
green," Phoenix boss Andy Briggs told Reuters.
Briggs said that if companies were not putting enough effort
into making themselves greener, Phoenix would likely exclude
them from its portfolios.
"If we have a company that isn't putting any energy or focus
into looking to make itself green, we are likely to exclude
those from our portfolios."
Phoenix specialises in books of life insurance business
closed to new customers though it plans to expand its business
of open policies after buying out the Standard Life brand
earlier this year.
It said its research showed that responsible investment was
important to the majority of its 13 million customers and
clients.
($1 = 0.7380 pounds)
(Reporting by Muvija M in Bengaluru;
Editing by Rachel Armstrong and Carolyn Cohn)
