ESG

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Across the Legal & General Group, Inclusive Capitalism is a key principle that drives our corporate strategy and shapes our culture. EBCs who share feedback with us regularly rate us as one of the leaders in relation to Environmental, Social and Governance (ESG) factors.


Our key ESG objectives are summarised below.


Our ESG objectives


Environmental - Portfolio decarbonisation


Our bulk annuity or pension risk transfer business is an integral part of the Legal & General Group (‘L&G Group’). We are leveraging our group capabilities so that much of the accountability and reporting is achieved at the L&G Group level as our annuity portfolio accounts for 90% of the Group’s proprietary assets which are covered by the Group reports.


Our Group carbon emission intensity is published annually in the Legal & General Group Climate and Nature report. This report also contains further information on our environmental initiatives.


Our interim targets are to reduce our portfolio’s greenhouse gas intensity by 18.5% by the start of 2025 and by 50% by the end of 2030. This is relative to year-end 2019 levels. Our target is to achieve a net zero asset portfolio by 2050. As at year-end 2023, we are on track for the 2025 target.


Social impact - Creating new investments for the future economy


When allocating capital towards investments, our aim first and foremost is to ensure the safety of our policyholders’ benefits, but where possible we invest to generate positive societal impacts, local and global economic growth. Further details of our social impact are in our Group Social Impact report.


Governance - Influencing the transition to a low-carbon economy


We are primarily fixed income investors, ie invest in corporate and government debt. We leverage our in-house asset manager’s (Legal and General Investment Management – ‘LGIM’) policies and commitments for compliance with ESG initiatives including climate frameworks. That means LGIM’s stewardship covers both the fixed income assets we own but also assets it manages on behalf of other clients.


As a Group and through LGIM, we also engage with wider stakeholders and have been members of a number of environmental initiatives for over a decade. For example, we've been a signatory to the UN Principles of Responsible Investment since 2010 and a member of the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change since 2011.


For details on LGIM’s policies including on stewardship please see here: Investment Stewardship & Governance