Forging Asset Owner Alliances for Capital Deployment: Brazil & Beyond | Global Investors' Symposium

Global Investment Trends:

• Despite narrative headwinds regarding climate and ESG, climate-related investing is up 12% globally this year.
• Physical and systemic risks, alongside an insurability crisis, are driving increased investment opportunities rather than retreat.
• Public sentiment supports active investor engagement; a Milken Institute/Harris Poll in seven countries found 77% of young people want investors to speak more about the economic opportunities of a climate solution.

Ontario Teachers' Plan (OTP) Strategy:

• OTP manages $270 billion in assets, with 80% managed in-house and 40% allocated to direct private markets.
• The fund has been fully funded for over 10 years, attributing this to robust risk management and fiduciary discipline.
• OTP integrates climate risk and energy transition opportunities across the asset life cycle to avoid myopic viewpoints.
• The fund emphasizes "evidence-based pragmatism" over virtue signaling, focusing on real-world impact and decarbonization partnerships with portfolio companies.
• OTP warns against narrowly defining capital allocation to only "green" assets, noting that starving the energy transition requires investment in manufacturing, supply chains, and infrastructure.

Future Fund (Australia) Strategy:

• The Future Fund manages approximately $330 billion AUD, operating on a completely outsourced investment model while maintaining an in-house integration team.
• Climate is embedded as a core investment theme alongside geopolitics and demographics within a "new investment order framework."
• The fund is the second-largest investor in Australian domestic renewables and has an internal energy transition team.
• Recent strategy refreshes explicitly call out "climate and nature" in responsible investment policies, moving beyond traditional risk to systems thinking.
• Future Fund views nature as a systems-thinking model to spark curiosity and improve biodiversity preservation in forestry investments.

CREO Syndicate & Institutional Findings:

• CREO's network includes ~210 family offices managing ~$1 trillion globally, with significant recent growth in interest from LATAM, APAC, and Australia.
• A joint study with Milken, ILN, and Upswift interviewing 14 institutional asset owners found no "course correction" or retreat from climate investing despite media narratives.
• Key Finding 1: Integration of climate risk and opportunity is now considered a fiduciary duty; the narrative that climate action conflicts with fiduciary duty is obsolete.
• Key Finding 2: Strategies are evolving from simple net-zero commitments to comprehensive decarbonization, including buying "dirty" assets (e.g., coal) specifically to transition them.
• Key Finding 3: Investment approaches are shifting from purely top-down mandates to a consolidation of top-down and bottom-up "do it" approaches, often without formal public commitments.
• Key Finding 4: Investors prioritize narrative control to avoid greenwashing accusations, even when lacking specific public targets.
• CREO emphasizes that active engagement (e.g., voting out anti-climate directors) is now a standard part of portfolio management.

Investor Leadership Network (ILN) Initiatives:

• ILN represents 13 of the largest G7 institutional investors with over $10 trillion in AUM, focusing on climate, talent, and private capital mobilization.
• ILN posits that "collaboration is the new competition" for solving systemic issues like climate change.
• A new partnership launched under Canada's G7 presidency will create the first "Investor Infrastructure Council" to align DFIs and private investors on blended finance in emerging markets.
• The network advocates for a non-one-size-fits-all approach to transition investing, recognizing diverse investor strengths and strategies.

Forward-Looking Statements & Upcoming Actions:

• Brazil-Beyond Roadmap: The ILN and partners are developing a "Brazil and Beyond" roadmap to input into the COP31 process, starting with a Middle East and Africa summit in December.
• COP 31 Host Bids: The Future Fund is awaiting results on Australia's bid to host COP 31 in Adelaide; a successful bid aims to unlock capital and highlight Pacific climate leadership.
• Asset Owner Dialogue: OTP and other investors plan to engage directly with the COP presidency to emphasize the "snakes on a plane" problem—systemic risks driving demand for opportunity-focused solutions.
• Trust Deficit: Amy Hepburn (ILN) notes a persistent trust deficit between public and private sectors, urging clarity and humility to build enduring partnerships rather than performative ones.
• Implementation Focus: The industry is moving past high-level conversation to "brass tacks" implementation, emphasizing that ambition must be priced into investments to unlock capital.