From dialogue to decarbonisation: can investor engagement deliver?

With momentum behind the low-carbon transition faltering and headwinds mounting, investors play an increasingly critical role in in sustaining climate ambition. Yet the dismantling of key collaborative initiatives, rising ESG backlash and competing priorities are making sustained engagement increasingly difficult. This panel will explore how active ownership, engagement and stewardship can continue to drive credible transition pathways across sectors - and how these strategies differ by asset class and market.

Speakers will discuss the nuances of engagement by equity and bondholders, the contrasts between private and listed markets and the distinct challenges of engaging with sovereign versus corporate issuers.

The discussion will also address what effective investor engagement looks like in practice, how its impact can be measured and whether current approaches can deliver the pace and scale of decarbonisation needed in a more fragmented global landscape.

Meet our speakers and chair

Adam Heltzer is a partner and head of the ESG Group at Ares, reporting to the President and CEO and leading the firm’s ESG strategy. He also serves on the Ares Enterprise Risk Committee. Before joining Ares in 2020, he led ESG and Sustainability at Partners Group. Earlier, he was a Global Leadership Fellow at the World Economic Forum. He holds a BA from the University of Michigan and an MBA and MPA from Harvard.

Caroline Escott is co-head of sustainable ownership at Railpen, leading investment stewardship globally across £34bn of assets under management. She previously led investment and stewardship at Pensions UK and held senior roles at UKSIF and PIMFA. She co-founded and chairs the $4.5tn Investor Coalition for Equal Votes and the $2.5tn Workforce Directors Coalition and serves as a professional pension trustee at the Standard Life Master Trust, where she chairs its Investment Committee.

Nikolaus Hastreiter is a PhD candidate at LSE’s Department of Geography and Environment and a Policy Fellow at the TPI Centre. His research explores how sustainable finance influences corporate climate action, with a focus on climate alliances and net zero targets. He is funded by the TPI Centre PhD Scholarship and the FIR-PRI PhD Grant. At the TPI Centre, Nikolaus contributes to methodology development for various hard-to-abate sectors. He previously worked at Deloitte and Vigeo Eiris.

Hayley McGuinness is Associate Director in Emerging Markets Equities at Federated Hermes. Her role focuses on ESG integration and stewardship, with a specialisation in climate and nature risk and financial impact. She engages with corporates across sectors and countries on financially material ESG issues and developed a climate risk framework to assess decarbonisation pathways in EM more realistically. Previously, she worked in ESG research at Citibank and in Climate Change consulting at EY.

Peter Tufano is a Baker Foundation Professor at Harvard Business School and Senior Advisor to the Harvard Salata Institute for Climate and Sustainability. Formerly Dean of Oxford’s Saïd Business School (2011-2021) and Professor at HBS (1989-2011), his work focuses on climate finance, climate alliances and the financial impact of climate on households, alongside research in financial innovation, financial engineering and household finance.

Carmen Nuzzo is Professor in Practice and Executive Director of the TPI Centre. Carmen leads the TPI Centre’s strategy, research and operations. Before joining in 2023, she was Head of Fixed Income at the UN-Principles for Responsible Investment, focusing on ESG in credit risk and various debt workstreams.

More about this event

Established in June 2022, the TPI Global Climate Transition Centre (TPI Centre) is a research centre at the London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE) dedicated to producing independent and forward-looking research and data on the progress of corporate and sovereign entities in addressing climate change. Its work equips investors with the insights needed to encourage and support the transition to a low-carbon economy and net zero.

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