SLOW BURN: Les gestionnaires d’actifs parient contre le climat

The report finds that most major asset managers maintain a gap between long-term net-zero commitments and short-term actions, with significant exposure to coal remaining in passive investment strategies. Only a small fraction of assets are covered by robust coal exclusion criteria, and passive funds are almost entirely excluded from such policies, creating a 'time bomb' for the climate.

• Less than half of the 29 evaluated asset managers have a public coal exclusion policy. Major firms such as Vanguard, PIMCO, and Schroders have not adopted such policies.
• Coal exclusion policies are often limited in scope; only 25% of all assets managed in the sample were covered by a coal exclusion criterion. Even managers with policies, such as BlackRock, Legal & General Investment Management, and UBS AM, apply them to less than 40% of their assets.
• Exclusion criteria are generally weak, with only 20% of asset managers excluding companies with coal expansion projects. Consequently, only 3,400 billion euros of the 23,000 billion euros covered by long-term climate commitments exclude companies with coal expansion projects.
• Passive investment strategies represent a major climate risk, accounting for over 45% of assets managed by the 29 firms but almost never covered by coal exclusions. For the largest passive managers in the sample, less than 3% of passively managed investments are covered by a coal exclusion criterion.
• While half of the asset managers publicly recommend that portfolio companies align with the Paris Agreement, none systematically define time-limited demands or apply sanctions for lack of short-term progress.
• The report identifies a lack of consistency in how policies are applied to investment mandates, which represent 55% of the total investments managed by the sample. Only a few managers, such as Ostrum AM and AXA IM, have robust policies that apply by default to dedicated funds and mandates.

APA

Cuvelier, L. (2021). SLOW BURN: Les gestionnaires d’actifs parient contre le climat. Reclaim Finance. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Rapport_Slow_Burn_Final_FR.pdf

Chicago

Cuvelier, Lara. SLOW BURN: Les gestionnaires d’actifs parient contre le climat. Reclaim Finance, 2021. https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Rapport_Slow_Burn_Final_FR.pdf.

Wikipedia

{{cite report |last1=Cuvelier |first1=Lara |title=SLOW BURN: Les gestionnaires d’actifs parient contre le climat |publisher=Reclaim Finance |date=April 2021 |url=https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Rapport_Slow_Burn_Final_FR.pdf |access-date=23 October 2026 |via=Climate Insights Directory}}

BibTeX

@techreport{cuvelier2021slow, author = {Cuvelier, Lara}, title = {{SLOW BURN: Les gestionnaires d’actifs parient contre le climat}}, institution = {Reclaim Finance}, year = {2021}, month = apr, url = {https://reclaimfinance.org/site/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/Rapport_Slow_Burn_Final_FR.pdf}, urldate = {2026-10-23}, note = {Indexed by Climate Insights Directory} }