Fondita participates in CDPs Non-Disclosure Campaign 2023

As part of our ambitions for carbon neutral portfolios and sustainability related work, we have as signatories to the CDP Capital Markets acted as the lead investor in engaging with 12 of our holdings where the ambition is to encourage the company to report to CDP Climate, Water and Forest. The recommendation to report focused on either the Climate, Water or Forest questionnaire dependent on the sector the company operates within.

The engagement consisted of a CDP drafted letter with the signatures of all the 275 financial institutions, representing over US $27.8 trillion in assets, requesting the company to disclose in CDP in the relevant questionnaires. Fondita was responsible for reaching out to the assigned companies, deliver the letter and engaging in the discussions with the company.  More information about the campaign can be found on CDPs homepage.

The deadline for reporting is in the end of July and Fondita intends to follow up on the companies we acted as lead investor for in August. We are eager to learn if we have been able to encourage relevant reporting in the interest of investors globally to attain quality data. The importance of reliable data is crucial at this point of time, in terms of our own ESG assessments and to be able to report on the regulatory demands for SFDR as the CSRD reporting framework is not yet in place to produce the data. Furthermore, the decision from EC to water down some of the mandatory requirements to voluntary increases the need for reliable data on a longer time horizon.

Fondita has a long history in responsible investing, and we are dedicated in working towards a more data transparent investment landscape, which helps us and other investors in retrieving comparable quality data to be incorporate into our analysis and reporting. Furthermore, we firmly believe that company disclosures raise awareness of the environmental impacts which in turn helps them focus on the relevant issues in a structured manner.

As a signatory for the CDP Capital Markets we intend to participate in as many collaborative engagement activities as possible. We are stronger together with the other signatories and we can engage through CDP in a manner which allows for measurable impact with a global audience.

The next campaign we are planning to take part in is the Science-Based Targets Campaign together with CDP. The campaign offers signatories an opportunity to play a key role in accelerating the adoption of science-based climate targets in the private sector by a collaboratively engaging with companies on this matter.

Erik Wikström, ESG Specialist