The Investor Agenda releases new guidance for investors to develop and publish ambitious Investor Climate Action Plans

• The seven Founding Partners of the Investor Agenda have released updated ICAPs Guidance to help investors reach a net zero emissions economy by 2050 or sooner.
• The ICAPs Guidance is designed to accompany the ICAPs Expectations Ladder to raise investor ambition on the climate crisis.
• The updated Guidance document adds further information on the ICAPs Expectations Ladder’s tiers, asset classes, tools and methodologies, sector levels, as well as where to find new resources on topics of increasing importance such as nature, biodiversity, adaptation and resilience.

Today, the Founding Partners of The Investor Agenda released new guidance to enable investors around the world to step up action to tackle the climate crisis and accelerate the transition to a net zero economy.

The latest Guidance is an update to the existing Investor Climate Action Plans (ICAPs) Expectations Ladder. The ICAPs Guidance document highlights best practices for investors in developing and publishing ambitious climate action plans. It also helps investors self-assess which tier they are on along the ICAPs Expectations Ladder, understand the main actions they can take to strengthen their approach, communicate this information to stakeholders, and navigate a growing number of climate-related investor initiatives and reporting expectations.

The ICAPs Guidance includes a set of resources to inform the development of ICAPs. This is not intended to be a comprehensive list of all tools and guidance, but rather provides an indication of the resources available.

Some specific updates to the ICAPs Guidance document include:

• Tiers mobility and progress – how investors can determine which tier they are in for each of the ICAPs focus areas, as well as more comprehensive detail on how to move across tiers.
• Asset class – how ICAPs can be applied in several core asset classes, including fixed income, private equity and infrastructure.
• Tools and methodologies – how investors can use specific tools and methodologies both to get started and to rapidly accelerate action to net zero.
• Sector level guidance – setting out why sector engagement is critical for investors and how this engagement can lead to real economy impact.
• New resources – recognising and providing new resources on topics of increasing importance, such as nature & biodiversity and adaptation & resilience

In May 2021, the Investor Agenda released the ICAPs Expectation Ladder and Guidance – a framework to encourage investor action across four key focus areas: investment, corporate engagement, policy advocacy and investor disclosure, with governance as a crosscutting theme across all areas. The ICAPs Expectations Ladder establishes four tiers of sequential accomplishment, from those beginning to think about climate change (Tier 4) to the investors who have made net zero commitments and are well along the path to setting and implementing science-based targets (Tier 1).

Together, the ICAPs Expectation Ladder and Guidance provide investors with clear steps they can take to support the global goal of achieving a net zero emissions economy by 2050 or sooner.

“We released the ICAPs Guidance document to help raise investor climate ambition,” said Kirsten Spalding, Senior Program Director, Investor Network at Ceres, and ICAPs Working Group Chair at the Investor Agenda. “It is a great resource for investors just starting their journey to help them develop and publish ICAPs, while those that have already begun their journey can use the guidance to accelerate their own climate actions to bring transition to a net zero economy closer.”

Access the updated ICAPs Guidance document

More about the ICAPs

Read the media release