Great expectations: Regulator publishes blog on climate change reporting

The Regulator has published a blog in which it discusses why it is putting extra emphasis on compliance with environmental social governance (ESG) and climate change reporting duties in 2023. The Regulator wants trustees, as well as their advisers, to be aware of its expectations and to understand why the focus on ESG is important, so they will be better motivated to meet those expectations.

The Regulator intends to check that trustees of schemes with 100 or more members give detail in their statement of investment principles on how they consider financially material ESG factors including, but not limited to, climate change. These trustees must also publish an implementation statement (IS) which shows how the principles in the SIP have been implemented.

Since 2022, the Regulator has requested that trustees provide a web address via their scheme return so their SIP and IS can be accessed. Of the 220 DC pension schemes that should have provided such web details through last year’s scheme return, only 180 have provided the information as required, and the Regulator expects to see an improvement in compliance.