The Research and Policy Center of the CFA Institute, the global association of investment professionals, has released a new guide for investors that aims to help advance the theory and practice of net-zero investing.  

The guide, serialized and also published in one complete volume entitled Investment Innovations Toward Achieving Net Zero: Voices of Influence, offers 16 research papers from more than 50 leading academics and investment industry professionals who share their practical solutions and strategies for net-zero investing.

Themes featured include: 

• Global cooperation: Systems-level thinking, international cooperation, renewable energy investments and climate-hedged portfolios to mitigate the impacts of climate change.
• Fiduciary duty and climate goals: Setting realistic climate goals, influencing government policy and ensuring fiduciary duties align with climate objectives.
• Decarbonization and carbon pricing trends: Global carbon pricing trends, the decreasing costs of decarbonization technologies and the role of policy harmonization in reducing emissions and achieving net-zero targets.
• Measuring carbon emissions: Carbon intensity as a financial risk factor, better carbon emission metrics and climate risk ratings.
• Net-zero-aligned portfolios: Dynamic portfolio rebalancing, multi-objective optimization tools, and machine learning large language models to address data gaps, greenwashing and uncertainties in net-zero investing.

“Net-zero investing is really still in its infancy,” says Chris Fidler, the institute’s head of global industry standards. “Against this backdrop, we’ve brought together experts from across the globe to break down the big ideas around net-zero investing and create an extended knowledge bank for investors seeking to incorporate net-zero strategies into their portfolios.

“As we see throughout the guide, climate-related disclosures play a central role. We hope the guide will serve as a valuable resource for those seeking to navigate the evolving landscape of net-zero investing.”