UNEP FI Panel: Enabling the net-zero transition through sector engagement

The net-zero transition in the real economy requires investors to actively support decarbonisation efforts through engagement with companies and their stakeholders. To date, they have largely focused on engagement with publicly listed companies, using tools such as dialogue with companies or proxy voting. Although these corporate engagement efforts have demonstrated much success in raising the business community’s climate ambitions, it becomes less effective when the business case for the requested action is impractical, uneconomic or uncertain - often the case for companies in hard-to-abate sectors. What is needed is sector/value chain engagement that increases investors’ ability to support solutions across industries. It is often more efficient for both companies and investors and also helps investors identify the systemic economic, technological and/or regulatory hurdles that obstruct the decarbonisation process, which sets the foundation for policy engagement.