AMNT WPC Summary 28 December 15

WORLD PENSIONS COUNCIL: FIFTH ANNUAL WORLD PENSIONS AND INVESTMENT FORUM:
2-3 December 2015: Paris:

“The long term assets of pension, sovereign and insurance investors in a time of economic realignment and climate change”.

Report by David Weeks

Committee Member of the UK Association of Member Nominated Trustees; Director of the defined benefit pension scheme of a leading UK PLC in engineering services

Copyright (c) David Weeks 2016

The right of David Weeks to be identified as author of this work has been asserted in accordance with Section 77 of the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

VERSION 1.1: 07/01/2016 INTRODUCTION

The forum programme spelt out the theme: “discuss the latest advances in pension regulation and governance, and investment strategies for a sustainable world: focusing on fixed income, equity and infrastructure assets”.

The forum took place at three landmark locations in Paris: Chimie Castle; Maison des Polytechniciens (where BNP Paribas Securities Services, as conference supporters, hosted a cocktail dinner); and Musee Social. Conference director Nicolas Firzli reminded those present that this last venue was the scene of much thinking on the origins of pensions in France during the 1860s. Representatives recalled others of the founding fathers of pensions systems in Europe: in Germany, Bismarck in the 1880s; in UK, Lloyd George and Winston Churchill in the 1900s, and the Beveridge report of 1942.

The forum was timed to coincide with “United Nations: Conference on Climate Change 2015: COP21/CMP11”. France chaired and hosted the 21st Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP21/CMP11), from 30 November to 11 December 2015. “The conference is crucial because the expected outcome is a new international agreement on climate change, applicable to all, to keep global warming below 2 degrees C.”

The United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (UNFCCC) was adopted during the Rio de Janeiro Earth Summit in 1992. This Framework Convention is a universal convention of principle, acknowledging the existence of anthropogenic (human-induced) climate change and giving industrialized countries the major part of responsibility for combating it.”