One of the UK’s biggest pension funds will on Monday seek to make climate change a key issue for its advisers and the 40 investment managers mandated to run money for the fund. Railpen, the £17bn (€18.7bn, $29bn) fund for railway employees, will be sending out detailed questionnaires to probe the extent to which managers take climate change seriously, how it affects their investment process, and what they see as their fiduciary duty.Devised in collaboration with HSBC and Linklaters, the 77 questions will be freely available to any other asset owner that wants to quiz its advisers and managers. Frank Curtiss, head of corporate governance at Railpen Investments, said the initiative was not the first in this area but was “the most sophisticated”, particularly on the legal issues. “We have to be comfortable our advisers and managers are taking on these risks so we need to open up a dialogue.” More…

Source: Financial Times