Echiquier Climate & Biodiversity Impact Europe, an impact fund to meet the climate challenge and protect biodiversity
La Financière de l’Echiquier (LFDE), a French pioneer in impact investing in listed companies, has launched its 2nd impact fund in Switzerland[1]: Echiquier Climate & Biodiversity Impact Europe[2]. The fund is designed to accelerate Europe’s energy transition and safeguard biodiversity.
Its demanding investment process incorporates climate change and biodiversity issues at every stage, and addresses 4 of the UN’s Sustainable Development Goals (SDG): SDG 14 Life below water, and SDG 15 Life on land, both related to biodiversity; SDG 7 Affordable and clean energy, and SDG 11 Sustainable cities and communities.
Managed by Adrien Bommelaer, Luc Olivier and Paul Merle, the fund aims to invest across all business sectors representative of the European economy, picking stocks that match 3 corporate profiles:
- Solutions: companies whose products and services help reduce their customers’ CO2 emissions
- Pioneers: companies with ambitious commitments and a systemic impact on their ecosystem
- Transition: companies embarking on their energy transition, which the portfolio management team supports and accelerates.
As well as ESG and financial criteria, stock-picking is based on a proprietary methodology that assesses companies’ “climate and biodiversity maturity”. Echiquier Climate & Biodiversity Impact Europe is the latest addition to LFDE’s impact range, initiated in 2017 with the launch of Echiquier Positive Impact Europe2, whose strategy is based on the SDGs defined by the UN.
Echiquier Climate & Biodiversity Impact Europe was recognised in the CDP Europe Awards 2022. A ranking created by the Carbon Disclosure Project (CDP) and based on assessing the environmental performances of 17,000 funds across the world. Only 20 funds received this award.
Safeguarding biodiversity is a priority for LFDE and it undertook, in the framework of the Finance for Biodiversity Pledge, to incorporate biodiversity criteria into its analyses by 2024, measure the impact of all its investments, and publish the results transparently.
Adrien Bommelaer, portfolio manager of Echiquier Climate & Biodiversity Impact Europe, said:
Echiquier Climate Impact & Biodiversity Impact Europe is uniquely positioned. Unlike most traditional funds, it does not merely invest in companies providing solutions, but seeks to involve all economic participants in helping make the European continent carbon neutral and to support companies in making their transition. Support is key to this fund and is what makes us different.
Alexandre Sauterel, Country Manager for Switzerland, adds:
Finance has a critical role to play in safeguarding biodiversity and meeting the climate challenge. This is a big issue: 50% of the world’s GDP depends on biodiversity and ecosystem services. Echiquier Climate & Biodiversity Impact Europe takes a pragmatic approach to addressing this complex issue, which is intimately tied into the climate, and seeks to get every sector on board to help meet the challenge.
[1] Launched 01/04/2022
[2] The funds are primarily exposed to the risk of capital loss, equity risk and discretionary management risk. For more information on its features, risks and fees, please read the regulatory documents available on our website, www.lfde.com.