Legal & General Mastertrust ahead of schedule on net zero goals

The Trustees have published their first Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures (TCFD) Report for the Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust, covering the period from 1 October 2021 to 5 April 2022.

The report outlines meaningful carbon footprint reduction across the Mastertrust’s standard auto-enrolment default funds, with these demonstrating the following reductions since December 2019:

The report demonstrates the funds' progress against the planned strategies to reduce carbon footprint, aiming to deliver against the Trustees' roadmap for the Mastertrust's default funds to be net zero by 2050.

They use a carbon footprint framework (a measure of a company's carbon emissions relative to their size) to monitor performance against the 2050 target each year. The Trustees have set out five and ten-year targets for the reduction of the carbon emissions intensity across the Mastertrust’s default funds.

The report also outlines the further actions taken across the Legal & General Mastertrust to address the material financial risks posed by climate change and take advantage of opportunities in the climate transition.

Commenting on the report, Dermot Courtier, Chair of the Legal & General WorkSave Mastertrust said,

“Climate change is one of the world’s most significant challenges and addressing it is a key responsibility for this generation. Scientific evidence indicates that we need to act now to reduce carbon emissions to avoid disastrous consequences for our environment, our society, and our economies.

“We consider that climate change represents a material financial risk to the Mastertrust as it has the potential to disrupt economic, financial, and social systems. The Trustees are committed to assessing these risks across the short, medium and long-term horizons, managing and monitoring them for the benefit of members.”

The Trustees of the Mastertrust will publish this report annually, updating members on Mastertrust’s pathway to net zero.