Net Zero Festival: Phoenix Group's Tim Lord on the challenge and necessity of building net zero investment portfolios

BusinessGreen staff
clock • 1 min read

VIDEO: Head of climate change at Phoenix Group explains how the pensions and investment is working to decarbonise its £300bn portfolio

Tim Lord is head of climate change at the Phoenix Group, the UK's largest long-term savings and retirement business which manages around £300bn of assets on behalf of 13 million customers.

In 2020, the company pledged to achieve net zero emissions across its investment portfolio by 2050, backed by interim decarbonisation goals for 2025 and 2030, by which point it is aiming to halve the emissions from all of the assets it controls.

Lord joined the company earlier this year from the Tony Blair Institute for Global Change think tank, where he also led on net zero and climate policy. Before that, he worked in the civil service at BEIS, playing a key role in the work underpinning the UK's historic 2050 net zero emissions target, which was embedded into the statute books in 2020

Ahead of this week's Net Zero Festival, Lord sat down with BusinessGreen's James Murray for a fascinating chat about the challenge and complexity of decarbonising pensions and investments, the threat of climate and nature risks to lifetime savings, and why the financial sector - having been slow off the mark on net zero - is now rapidly moving into gear on climate action.

Their conversation can be watched in full above.

Phoenix Group is a partner of the Net Zero Festival.

More on Investment

Cranfield University wins £69m to launch landmark large-scale hydrogen aviation hub

Cranfield University wins £69m to launch landmark large-scale hydrogen aviation hub

University wins largest ever research cash boost in support of plans to test hydrogen-powered aviation technology at dedicated airport hub

Stuart Stone
clock 27 March 2024 • 3 min read
Royal London snaps up 21,000 acres of 'prime farmland' for £260m natural capital plan

Royal London snaps up 21,000 acres of 'prime farmland' for £260m natural capital plan

Joint venture with South Yorkshire Pension Authority aims to see range of regenerative farming and natural capital projects deployed across Cambridgeshire and Lincolnshire

Michael Holder
clock 27 March 2024 • 2 min read
Reports: China's EVE Energy eyes £1.2bn investment in Coventry gigafactory

Reports: China's EVE Energy eyes £1.2bn investment in Coventry gigafactory

BMW battery supplier in talks to invest more than £1bn in West Midlands facility that could become UK's largest gigafactory, reports claim

Stuart Stone
clock 25 March 2024 • 3 min read