The $40 billion UniSuper investment fund has announced that it will exclude fossil fuel companies from its “socially responsible” investment options as part of a refocus of its portfolio.
UniSuper says the move is part of a strategy to also exclude gaming and weapons stocks from its socially responsible portfolio. Tobacco was excluded from all its investment options in 2012.
The move came as funds run by universities themselves came under pressure to account for their carbon intensive investments in their portfolios, although UniSuper says it was not a direct response to that lobbying, but takes it beyond what is required of, say, the Dow Jones Sustainable Index.
UniSuper is one of a number of industry funds targeted by 350.Org and other “divestment” campaigners to exclude fossil fuels from their investment portfolios.
The decision made by UniSuper means that fossil fuel investments are only excluded from the socially responsible options, which has around $1.5 billion under management, and not from its diversified portfolio. And not all fossil fuel investments will be excluded.
“With regard to the fossil fuel sector, we understand that there are many views about where the threshold for exclusion should be set, for instance, should utilities companies be excluded?” UniSuper chief investment officer John Pearce writes in a letter to investors.
“At this point, we’re proposing to screen companies involved in fossil fuel exploration and production. In the future, we may review whether it’s more appropriate to also exclude utilities and other fossil fuel related companies.”
Pearce says this and other changes will be implemented “over the course of 2014” unless there is significant opposition to the changes.
The announcement came as Australian university investment funds are under pressure to fully account for their investment decisions after an apparent attempt to sidestep scrutiny about their carbon intensive developments.
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