This document outlines key definitions, fiduciary considerations, and investment frameworks related to climate justice, building off of IEN’s February 2022 report, Leading with Justice: Net Zero Investing & Conversations on Climate Justice.
The interconnection between climate impacts and social inequality has been well documented to create compounded portfolio risks for all investors. For institutional investors, addressing the social dimensions of the low-carbon transition is both financially material and legally prudent.
The fiduciary duty case for climate justice is compelling: climate risks represent both a systemic investment threat and a legal obligation for fiduciaries who must protect long-term value creation specifically for their beneficiaries, none of whom are immune to the effects of climate change, and some of whom are already very negatively affected.
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Acknowledgements
This resource was developed in collaboration and consultation with IEN’s Climate Justice Task Force, a group dedicated to advancing a just transition to an equitable, low-carbon, regenerative economy.
Contributing Authors:
- Nicole Torrico, Managing Director, Intentional Endowments Network
- Julianne Zimmerman, Co-CEO, Adasina Social Capital
IEN Climate Justice Task Force Members:
- Adriana Becerra Cid, Sustainable Investing Lead for Private Markets, Lombard Odier Investment Managers
- Martha Buckley, Senior Manager, Sunwealth
- Blythe Coleman-Mumford, Sustainable Justice Scholars Project Manager, Sustain Our Future Foundation
- Felicia Davis, Founder, HBCU Green Fund
- Richard Gragg, Professor, Florida A&M University (FAMU)
- Tracy Gray, Founder & Managing Partner, The 22Fund
- Ivy Jack, Senior Advisor, Diverse Investing Collective
- Kaede Kawauchi, Senior Manager of the Investor Network, Ceres
- Hailey Knowles, Senior Account Manager, Capital Markets, CDP North America
- Delicia Nahman, Sustainability Director, Lafayette College
- Dorien Nuñez, Co-founder/Director of Research, OmniResearch & Senior Fellow / JEDI Initiative Co-Chair, IEN
- Kem Opperman-Torres, Sustainability Director, Dillard University
- Paul Rissman, Co-founder, Rights CoLab
- Kathleen Simpson, CEO, The Russell Family Foundation (TRFF)
- Kendra Sharp, Strategy Analyst, UNCF
- Charlotte Taylor, Graduate Student, University of British Colombia
- Enith Williams, Founder & Executive Director, Reparations Finance Lab
- Micaela Young, Director of Development, Piikani Health Lodge Institute
- Julianne Zimmerman, Co-CEO, Adasina Social Capital