What, specifically, are we asking companies to do?• Be more ambitious in emission reduction targets to make theirpace of decarbonisation consistent with what science is tellingus, requiring a halving this decade.• Show front-loaded timely targets for this: for example, a 50%reduction in direct emissions by 2030 based on a suitablebaseline and a 25% decrease by 2025.• Understand the largest sources of indirect (Scope 3) emissions fortheir business and investigate what opportunities exist to reducethese aggressively.So far, we have contacted71companiesand met withWe initially planned to engage with all the companies held acrossthe Sustainable Future funds but have not achieved this so far. Thisis largely due to Covid-19, as we suspended all engagementinitiatives for two quarters in 2020 to concentrate on the impactsof the pandemic on the businesses held in our funds and their staff.While this is57of these for detailed discussionsabout decarbonisation targetsWe found just33• Something we are not asking is for companies to automatically divestfrom the more carbon-intensive parts of their business, especially ifthis is enabling people to reduce emissions by using their products.Instead, we want them to innovate and come up with creative waysto operate in step with an ultra-low carbon economy.40%by number (with 190holdings across the funds),we have prioritised thoseresponsible for the highestlevels of direct emissionsin our portfolios.contributedCO2companies(17% by number)Of these,90%with63%are involved in the ScienceBased Target Initiative (SBTi)24%and a furthercommitted to1.5 degreesby 2030which is proving a helpful resource insetting decarbonisation strategiesFor a significant proportion of companies, we appear to be pushingon an open door but have to acknowledge our engagement hasfocused on a proactive sub-set of the economy where businessesare typically better than the market average on carbon abatement.In contrast, there remain a small number of hard-to-abate industries –4 - Liontrust: 1.5 degree Transition Challenge – engagement updateof emissionsfrom the Funds9%to 2 degrees. Thismeans a third overallare Paris aligned to lessthan 2 degrees andhave some manner oftarget in place to reduceabsolute emissions.primarily heavy industries such as the steel, cement, and aluminiumsectors that employ extremely high-temperature processes – whichhave not yet been able to come up with absolute reduction targetsin line with the science.
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