Prince Charles is worried about pensions

Prince Charles is to host a meeting of some of the world's leading pension funds as part of efforts to encourage the adoption of greener investment criteria.

Aled Jones, deputy director of the Cambridge Programme for Sustainability Leadership, which manages the Prince's Business and Environment initiative, confirmed plans are underway to host a meeting of the programme's P8 Group of pension funds at Clarence House in the run up to the UN's Copenhagen climate change talks in December.

The P8 Group was launched in late 2007 and involves a number of the world's largest pension funds, including CalPERS, CalSTRS, APG, USS and the Korea National Pension Fund.

Together, the companies involved manage assets worth over $3tr (£1.86tr) and Prince Charles is hoping that they will sign up to ethical and low-carbon investment criteria, and provide a working green investment model that other pension funds and institutional investors can follow.

"We run a number of business leadership groups on behalf of the Prince of Wales, and pensions and investment is a key area, because if we get it right it has the potential to unlock a lot of the low-carbon investment that is needed," Jones told BusinessGreen.com.

He added that the agenda for the meeting was currently being finalised, but confirmed that much of the focus was likely to be on financing and green investment criteria.