At LOIM’s annual Transition Investment Summit, asset owners shared how they are deploying long-term capital to support the transition while seeking attractive investment outcomes.
Jennifer Devine, Head of the Wiltshire Pension Fund, outlined the fund’s long-term strategy for the sustainability transition, highlighting how its Climate Opportunities Portfolio builds diversified exposure across asset classes with a disciplined focus on financial returns.
Speaking on the sideline of the summit, Devine also discussed the role of climate scenario analysis in portfolio construction, the opportunities arising from the energy transition, and the growing importance of nature and biodiversity as long-term investment themes.
Read also: Insights on the ground: meet companies driving the sustainability transition
Below is a transcript of the video.
Can you introduce yourself and tell us about the Wiltshire Pension Fund’s sustainable investing journey?
I'm Jennifer Devine and I'm Head of the Wiltshire Pension Fund. It's my fourth time at the Lombard Odier Transition Investment Summit. I was really happy to be up on stage today, talking about our approach to investing in the transition through our Climate Opportunities portfolio.
Our journey investing sustainably began around six years ago when we first did climate scenario modelling. And from there, the data just laid us on a really clear path to investing more sustainably.
How does your long-term investment horizon influence decision-making?
We have a 100-year time horizon. So I know there are challenges at the moment in the macroeconomic environment, but we have to look to the long term and ignore those blips and just keep going with what the data is telling us we need to do to get the best outcome for our fund.
How are you approaching opportunities linked to the transition, nature and social themes?
There are lots of exciting areas in the energy transition, but as a pension fund, we're looking at things from more of a strategic perspective rather than making specific allocations ourselves. We made a choice to invest in Lombard Odier’s strategy, because that will recycle capital into companies that are taking advantage of new trends.
Looking to the future, we're going to be incorporating more themes around nature, biodiversity, making sure that those risks are properly accounted for and that we're taking full advantage of the opportunities. And we'll be expanding to look at more social themes.
What role does nature play in addressing climate change?
Climate and nature are completely interlinked. You're not going to be able to solve the climate crisis without looking to nature as part of the solution. We've been tackling this by including a dedicated allocation to nature in our Climate Opportunities portfolio, and I really look forward to seeing that expand in the future.
