Trinity’s shares in the fossil-fuel industry will likely not be moved into a new, climate-conscious fund until next year.
Earlier this year, College said that it would move all its investments into a new Climate Conscious Fund Index, but this fund is still being constructed.
Irish Life, which manages Trinity’s investment portfolio, is currently constructing the new Climate Conscious Fund Index which, when completed, will hold Trinity’s €222 million Endowment Fund.
College has said the move will be made in the first quarter of 2022.
In an email statement to The University Times, Trinity Media Relations Officer Catherine O’Mahony said: “Following review and engagement with Irish Life Investment Managers earlier this year, at its meeting in September 2021, the Investment Committee made a decision to move its equity holding from the current MSCI World ex-Fossil Fuel ex-Tobacco Index to a newly developed proprietary ILIM Climate Conscious Fund Index which will materially enhance the climate risk and sustainability profile of the Endowment Fund.”
“The new index provides enhanced reduction in carbon intensity, carbon risk-rating and severe ESG exposure and an increased allocation to carbon solutions and contains no oil and gas production or energy generation companies”, O’Mahony said.
“ILIM is presently working on construction of the index and there is ongoing engagement between Trinity and ILIM during the transition process. It is expected that the transition will be completed in Q1 2022.”
Earlier this year, The University Times reported that College still had shares worth at least €8 million in companies directly involved in fossil fuel activities, despite saying it would divest from such companies several years ago.
In an email statement to this newspaper at the time, O’Mahony said: “When the Trinity Endowment Fund divested of fossil-fuel reserves in 2017, it invested in a portfolio of companies that were brought together under the most common type of ESG / Sustainable Index at the time.”
“This was an exclusionary-type index which removed certain securities based on their involvement in certain industries (fossil fuel reserves and tobacco). The current index in which the Endowment Fund is invested is an example of this first-generation exclusionary style index.”
ESG ratings, or Environmental, Social and Governance, is a measure of how products or services contribute to sustainable development.
College’s Investment Committee subsequently decided to move its equity holding from the MSCI World ex-Fossil Fuel ex-Tobacco Index to the new Irish Life Climate Conscious Fund Index.
“The new index provides enhanced reduction in carbon intensity, carbon risk-rating and severe ESG exposure and an increased allocation to carbon solutions and contains no oil and gas production or energy generation companies”, O’Mahony said.
“The area of ESG and ethical investing is a complex and dynamic one and will be subject to regular review by the University. The Provost is planning to bring a group together around ethical investment to discuss this more broadly in the coming month.”
Investments in companies with direct fossil fuel activities represented approximately 3.6 per cent of the total Endowment Fund, according to the contents of College’s endowment fund, which was obtained by The University Times under the Freedom of Information Act.
