Investment management firm Fidelity International announced the publication of its Nature Roadmap, outlining the company’s approach to the integration of nature in its sustainable investments and stewardship processes, and setting a series of commitments including a pledge to begin voting against companies that fail to meet expectations on deforestation-related practices and disclosure from 2024.

The new voting policy follows the signing by Fidelity at the 2021 COP26 UN climate conference of the Financial Sector Commitment Letter on Eliminating Commodity-Driven Deforestation, committing to use engagement and stewardship towards a best efforts goal to eliminate forest-risk agricultural commodity-driven deforestation activities in investment strategies by 2025.

The firm is also a foundation member and signatory of the Finance for Biodiversity pledge, a collaboration of more than 150 financial institutions representing more than $22 trillion in assets under management, committed to protect and restore biodiversity through their financing activities and investments, sharing knowledge; engage with companies, assess impact, set targets and reporting publicly on these activities before 2025. 

Jenn-Hui Tan, Chief Sustainability Officer, Fidelity International said:

“The loss of natural capital is a systematic risk to capital markets, and as such, prioritising and contributing to the health and preservation of our biodiversity and ecosystems is essential.

“The launch of our Nature Roadmap, along with the application of our deforestation voting principles and guidelines, demonstrates our commitment to natural capital conservation, setting out the approach we have chosen and articulating the broad range of tools we have at our disposal to integrate nature in our investment and stewardship processes.”

Additional actions set out in the roadmap included ensuring robust governance and oversight of sustainability related issues including nature, integrating nature in Fidelity’s ESG tools – including ESG ratings, its SDG tool, climate rating – and leveraging external tools and data to enhance the integration of nature-related impacts, risks and opportunities, and embedding nature in the firm’s sustainable investment framework, in addition to policy engagement and system-wide stewardship initiatives.

Tan added:

“We seek to make a difference not only through direct corporate dialogue but in collaboration with the industry through system-wide stewardship, helping to shape an enabling policy and regulatory environment which places a fair value on natural capital and the ecosystem services from which we all benefit.”