Climate discussions have been mixed as of late, with the Coalition’s decision last week to abandon net-zero coinciding with the start of COP30.
Despite geopolitical shifts and widening regional differences, Robeco’s chief investment officer, Anton Eser, said the firm remains firmly aligned with the course set by climate science but has updated its climate plan to focus on three pillars.
“We believe the low-carbon transition is essential for long-term investment performance and for safeguarding economic, environmental, and social assets,” Eser said.
Reflecting this stance, asset manager Robeco has published its updated Climate and Nature Transition Plan 2025-2030, building on the firm’s original roadmap published in 2021.
According to the firm, the roadmap’s strategy rests on three key pillars: decarbonising its activities, leveraging investor influence, and working with clients and industry peers.
The updated plan introduces three major steps:
The first goal is to broaden the scope of climate transition investing, with the roadmap now encompassing 60 per cent of client assets - up from 43 per cent previously. This includes mandates and indices with material objectives.
Second, it sets forth a plan to improve the quality of decarbonisation to focus on “real-world impact”, while maintaining its target of 50 per cent carbon footprint reduction by 2030.
In achieving this goal, Robeco’s proprietary “Climate Traffic Light” tool will continue to be used to support investments toward transition leaders and solution providers.
Introduced in 2021, the tool assesses how well a company aligns with the Paris Agreement, considering different countries’ responsibilities. It looks at a company’s emission reduction targets and their credibility to see if they are on track to keep global warming well below 2°C by 2100.
According to the firm, through the use of this tool, Robeco’s share of client assets in high-emission sectors held by companies leading the transition has grown from 50 per cent in 2019 to 59 per cent, putting it ahead of the benchmark which currently sits at 52 per cent.
By 2030, its stated aim is to grow the share of transition leaders and solution providers by another 5 per cent.
The third major step is to better integrate climate and nature stewardship by merging its climate and biodiversity engagement efforts.
Robeco has pinpointed companies with the greatest impact on emissions, water use, hazardous waste, and deforestation - together accounting for roughly 40 per cent of the firm’s carbon and biodiversity footprints.
To address this, engagement and voting will prioritise laggards identified through Robeco’s newly introduced “Biodiversity Traffic Light”, which will be used along the “Climate Traffic Light”.
As the Rotterdam-headquartered firm explained, it has made strong progress in reducing its carbon footprint so far, achieving 44 per cent portfolio decarbonisation, increasing client assets with material climate objectives to €139 billion (up from €76 billion in 2020), and engaging 100 companies through its climate stewardship program while voting at 300 AGMs.
However, it noted that a major challenge remains, since much of the decarbonisation has resulted from portfolio transactions rather than real emission reductions by the companies themselves.
This is why the next phase shifts the manager’s focus from merely reducing financed emissions to actively financing emissions reductions, explained the firm’s climate and biodiversity strategist, Lucian Peppelenbos.
“By investing in companies that are undergoing genuine transition, we aim to contribute to real-world climate mitigation and nature restoration,” Peppelenbos said.
He emphasised this above all, this method is “smart investing”, with Robeco’s research showing that such companies outperform laggards in their sector.
This stance reflects recent findings from Capital Group’s 2025 ESG Global Study, which found that ESG investing has proven resilient even amid global unpredictability.
According to the study, sustainable investment adoption remains strong at 87 per cent worldwide, just shy of last year’s record high.
Of respondents, over half of the Capital respondents said they believe companies with credible transition plans can outperform over the long term, while 74 per cent said fundamental research - such as Robeco’s use of its “Traffic Light” tools - is key to identifying those companies.
