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The scale and urgency of the climate crisis and the action needed to tackle it means that robust plans to meet targets must urgently be put in place.

Our analysis* shows that investment from the private sector and the pensions industry can be crucial in funding the net zero transition. With the right reforms on the right terms for pension savers, UK pension funds could quadruple their investment in UK climate solutions to up to £1.2 trillion.

At Phoenix Group, we’re committed to advocating for the economy-wide change required to boost climate investment across the UK. Through our work with government, regulators and industry, we’re working to inform the conversation while always prioritising good outcomes for our customers.

Our commitment

Scaling up investment in climate solutions is one of the key potential ways that we can help to achieve net zero. And with c.12 million customers and close to £0.3 trillion assets under administration, our scale means we can make a real difference.

One of the central pillars of our Net Zero Transition Plan is using our scale and voice to drive wider system change to help establish the right policy, regulatory and market conditions to achieve net zero. We are working to achieve this through a combination of thought leadership, collaboration, and engagement with government, regulators and industry to take forward the priority strategies to unlock investment.

How does this impact our customers?

As providers of pension and savings solutions, our primary focus is always to deliver good financial outcomes for our members and customers.

Our research^ tells us that our customers are concerned about climate change and expect us to invest their money in a responsible way; and subsequently, we have enhanced our approach to managing climate risk exposure. By taking the right actions to decarbonise and navigate the transition to net zero, we can help pension savers grow their investments and protect them against the financial risks of climate change.

Challenges we need to address

Our Unlocking investment to support the Net Zero transition policy paper identified that there are four key barriers inhibiting progress to unlocking investment:

Demand:

  • Competition with bank financing
  • Limited regional project pipelines 

Supply:

  • Policy and market uncertainty
  • Regulatory constraints

Solutions to barriers

We propose four priority strategies in the short term that should form the focus for the government, regulators and pensions industry to unlock investment1:

  • Crowd in institutional investment via the National Wealth Fund
  • Empower regions of the UK to facilitate investment
  • Develop Sectoral Investment Roadmaps to provide investor certainty
  • Address regulatory and structural barriers to unlock institutional investor capita

Our journey to net zero

Achieving net zero by 2050 remains a huge challenge and will require a step-change in collective action and investment.

That’s why taking bold action to advocate for necessary system changes and engaging with government, regulators and industry is crucial. It demonstrates leadership and shows that we are willing to walk the walk.

We plan to continue delivering thought leadership, engagement and, crucially, collaboration that will help to drive necessary system change as we continue on our journey towards achieving net zero and simultaneously helping our customers secure a life of possibilities.

  • ^ Research conducted via an online survey with 2,052 customers across our Standard Life, Phoenix Life and ReAssure brands. Data weighted to reflect the distribution of customers across our brands (effective total base = 1,752). Fieldwork: 24th January-9th February 2024.
  • 1 Unlocking investment to support the Net Zero transition policy paper