Mersey Pension Fund (MPF), the fifth largest fund in the UK’s Local Government Pension Scheme, are pleased to announce the launch of the All World Equity Climate Balanced Multi-Factor Index Sub-Fund, which will have an initial seeding of £400 million and we have allocated one-third of Merseyside’s passive equities portfolio (the £400m) into the new fund, but not one-third of total AUM.

In November 2018, MPF announced that it had selected a Smart Sustainability Index from FTSE Russell, FTSE All-World Climate Balanced Comprehensive Factor Index, to support the implementation of its Climate Risk Strategy within the Fund’s listed equity portfolio. The fund is being managed on behalf of MPF by State Street Global Advisors (SSgA). The objective of MPF’s climate strategy is to align its Responsible Investment policy and activities with the goals of the 2015 Paris Agreement. As part of this, the Fund has considered options for capturing both the risks and opportunities arising from climate change.

MPF provides pensions for local government employees in the Liverpool city region. The Fund’s responsible investment policy has three components: voting; engagement with companies on environmental, social and governance (ESG) issues; and collaboration with likeminded investors. In recent years, MPF has worked actively with other local government pension schemes, UK banks and policymakers to determine what the investment needs of are. 

https://www.merseysidepensionfund.org.uk/

Owen Thorne, Investment Manager, Merseyside Pension Fund: 
"We are pleased to have worked with FTSE Russell to produce a low carbon index solution that provides us with an investable, risk-efficient means of achieving our decarbonisation goals."