FinanceMap scores this financial institution in the following areas. Please navigate to the relevant tab for in-depth analysis
FinanceMap assesses these portfolios for this financial institution. Please navigate to the relevant tab for in-depth analysis.
Fossil fuel production companies are defined as those with primary sector of operations in the up-, mid-, and/or downstream segments of fossil fuel production. Green companies are defined as companies having over 75% revenue deriving from Substantial Contribution to Mitigation activities under the EU Taxonomy.
Portion of AUM Assessed: $56.2B
Sector Paris Alignment scores for the sectors in which the asset manager has shareholdings. FinanceMap Paris Alignment analysis is limited to the automotive, upstream fossil fuel, and power sectors.
| Holding Name | Contribution to Sector Production |
|---|---|
| Renew Energy Global PLC | 14.2% |
| Enel SpA | 13.1% |
| RWE AG | 10.7% |
| Engie SA | 10.2% |
| SSE PLC | 7.3% |
| Drax Group PLC | 5.8% |
| Azure Power Global Ltd | 4.6% |
| Clearway Energy Inc | 4.0% |
| Nextera Energy Inc | 3.4% |
| Sembcorp Industries Ltd | 3.3% |
| Holding Name | Contribution to Sector Production |
|---|---|
| Maruti Suzuki India Ltd | 47.1% |
| Toyota Motor Corp | 10.2% |
| Mercedes Benz Group AG | 6.3% |
| Honda Motor Co Ltd | 4.2% |
| Kia Corp | 3.3% |
| Stellantis NV | 3.1% |
| General Motors Co | 3.0% |
| Great Wall Motor Co Ltd | 3.0% |
| SAIC Motor Corp Ltd | 2.8% |
| Hyundai Motor Co | 2.5% |
| Holding Name | Contribution to Sector Production |
|---|---|
| Glencore PLC | 56.2% |
| Coal India Ltd | 16.4% |
| China Shenhua Energy Co Ltd | 15.7% |
| Adaro Energy Indonesia TBK PT | 4.7% |
| Yankuang Energy Group Co Ltd | 4.6% |
| Exxaro Resources Ltd | 0.9% |
| United Tractors Tbk PT | 0.7% |
| Washington H Soul Pattinson and Company Ltd | 0.3% |
| Inner Mongolia Yitai Coal Co Ltd | 0.2% |
| Banpu PCL | 0.1% |
| Holding Name | Contribution to Sector Production |
|---|---|
| Novatek PAO | 51.5% |
| BP PLC | 15.1% |
| Shell PLC | 9.5% |
| TotalEnergies SE | 7.4% |
| Petroleo Brasileiro SA Petrobras | 2.4% |
| Woodside Energy Group Ltd | 1.8% |
| Tullow Oil PLC | 1.5% |
| Serica Energy PLC | 1.5% |
| Harbour Energy PLC | 0.9% |
| Exxon Mobil Corp | 0.8% |
All equity funds that FinanceMap has identified as being managed by this asset manager. Click through to a fund's profile page to view in-depth analysis.
abrdn (formerly Standard Life Aberdeen) appears to place a strong focus on climate change and ESG issues in its stewardship approach, although it has not demonstrated a clear push for a “rapid and far-reaching” transition as needed to limit warming to 1.5°C. The asset manager appears to be actively engaging with companies around climate change. It has a robust framework that informs its climate engagement priorities, and sets clear expectations of investee companies in climate-related engagements. There appears to be a defined process for engagements and it has defined key steps in its engagement process, however the milestones in its reporting lack detail. It is willing to escalate engagements by issuing public statements, voting for shareholder resolutions, and voting against management. Additionally, it has voted in support of new directors at ExxonMobil to help better manage the company’s energy transition.
abrdn appears to be actively engaging companies on climate although it is unclear whether engagements to transition business models are in line with the Paris Agreement. For example, it has engaged with PLN around improving climate disclosures and governance, as well as J. B. Hunt Transport Services Inc around setting Science Based Targets and expand TCFD reporting. abrdn also appears to be engaging companies around indirect policy influence and supported a resolution at ExxonMobil requesting the production of a report on the company’s climate-related lobbying. The asset manager collaboratively engages with a number of industry initiatives, notably NZAM, Transition Pathway Initiative, CFRF, IIGCC, etc. However, collaborative engagement case studies are lacking in its reporting.
Although abrdn states that it has internal governance structure to provide assurance over stewardship activities, it is unclear how these structures operate are and how stewardship policies and activities are reviewed. The asset manager does, however, describe a thorough process to seek clients’ investment and stewardship expectations. abrdn is fully transparent about its current engagements and discloses engagements in its 2021 Stewardship Report and quarterly Active Ownership Reports. It is transparent about its voting record and discloses justifications for voting decisions made against management.
The asset manager does not appear to have actively participated in filing or co-filing climate-related shareholder resolutions, however, it appears to be using its shareholder authority to vote against directors on climate grounds.
Insightia data suggests that abrdn has mixed support of AGM resolutions InfluenceMap categorizes as in line with the Paris Agreement, supporting 48.1% in 2019, 55.7% in 2020, 45.7% in 2021, and showing a decrease of support in 2022 with 36.1%.
FinanceMap's methodology to measure the engagement process on climate was developed in consultation with several of the world's leading asset managers and uses key aspects of the UK Financial Reporting Council's 2020 Stewardship Code . The Stewardship Code was chosen to benchmark engagement quality as it provides an ambitious framework and detailed definitions of what constitutes effective engagement. FinanceMap defines the term ‘engagement’ as referring to all investor actions undertaken to influence the management strategy of the companies they own including private communications with corporate management and appointed advisors; questions at AGMs/other company meetings; comments on the company in the media; escalation and the shareholder resolution process (filing, voting behavior). FinanceMap’s methodology breaks the engagement process down into a set of sub-activities and looks for evidence associated with these across publicly available data sources.
Climate-relevance categorization of shareholder resolutions is based on the IPCC’s Special Report on 1.5°C and its concluded need for “rapid and far-reaching transitions in land, energy, industry, buildings, transport, and cities.” FinanceMap scored voting on any resolution where the intent and likely outcome is consistent with this IPCC stated need. The voting data is drawn from asset managers' disclosures to the US Security Exchange Commission (SEC), asset manager websites (including third-party websites they link to), directly from the asset managers, and through specialist voting data provider Insightia. The full list of resolutions assessed is available here.
The following table outlines the key queries and data sources, which FinanceMap uses to assess financial institutions’ sustainable finance policy engagement. Every evidence piece is assessed on a five-point scale of -2,-1,0,1,2 or NA (not applicable)/NS (not scored). All queries, data sources, and evidence pieces are weighted against one another in a matrix system to arrive at a final top-level score. Clicking on specific cells will load the underlying evidence and information on how it has been assessed.
abrdn, formerly Standard Life Aberdeen, appears to have been fairly actively engaged on sustainable finance policy, with mixed positions.
abrdn has stated support for action to keep global temperature rise to 1.5C and has supported the goals of the Global Biodiversity Framework. In 2020, abrdn also called for action to achieve net-zero by 2050 in the UK. abrdn has also offered broad support for sustainable finance regulations to “scale up flows of low carbon finance”.
Aberdeen Standard Investments supported the mandatory implementation of the TCFD recommendations into reporting frameworks in response to the UK's Financial Conduct Authority (FCA) in 2019. In 2021, abrdn supported mandatory implementation of TCFD-aligned disclosures for asset managers and asset owners in response to the UK’s FCA, although stated concerns around data availability for some of the proposed requirements, such as Scope 3 emissions. Also in 2021, abrdn supported mandatory implementation of the TCFD as part of a joint statement to governments and in response to the UK government in 2020 and 2022. In another joint statement in 2022, abrdn further advocated for disclosure on nature-related impacts and dependencies by 2030 under the COP15 framework. In 2022, abrdn stated broad support for climate and sustainability disclosures proposed by the ISSB, which are likely to inform government policy.
In response to the UK’s FCA consultation on green finance in 2019, Aberdeen Standard Investments referred to their support of the EU's taxonomy, suggesting it should be expanded to cover wider social and governance aspects but that it could be used to develop similar frameworks for wider application. In response to the European Commission in 2020, however, it opposed the expansion of the EU taxonomy to cover environmentally harmful activities.
On its website in 2019, Aberdeen Standard Investments stated support for the EU Green Bond Standard. In response to the European Commission on the Renewed Sustainable Finance Strategy in 2020, abrdn did support verification mechanisms for the EU GBS but again appeared to express concerns around its stringency. In response to the UK’s FCA on investment labels, abrdn suggested a more flexible approach to labeling transition activities and weaker levels of alignment with the UK taxonomy.
In a 2019 website article, Aberdeen Standard Investments appeared to support the DWP’s proposal for trustees to include disclosures on the extent of ESG integration. However, in response to the ESA’s Sustainable Finance Disclosure Regulation (SFDR) consultation on investor ESG disclosure in 2020, abrdn argued for a more flexible approach. In response to the Commission in 2020, abrdn did not support incorporating adverse ESG impacts into fiduciary duty and suggested that asking retail clients about sustainability preferences should not be regulatory. In response to the UK’s FCA on the Sustainability Disclosure Requirements in 2022, abrdn stated concerns around the availability of data for Principal Adverse Impact (PAI) disclosures.
abrdn has stated it is engaging with policymakers on sustainable finance and has disclosed some information on sustainability disclosures on Sustainability Report. abrdn has listed its roles within some of the trade associations it is a member of, but with no further details on indirect influence governance.
InfluenceMap’s methodology for assessing lobbying on sustainable finance policy closely follows InfluenceMap’s established methodology on climate policy engagement, which is used extensively by investors, including via the Climate Action 100+ investor engagement process. Our full methodology can be found here.
Under our assessment of sustainable finance lobbying, InfluenceMap considers engagement on all financial policies which intersect with climate and/or other sustainability issues. The analysis takes into account both the engagement of the financial institution and the activities of industry associations they hold membership of.
InfluenceMap’s methodology covers seven publicly available data sources, searching for evidence of engagement and corporate positioning since 2017. To determine the policy issues within the scope of the analysis, InfluenceMap breaks down sustainable finance policy engagement into a series of subcategories, or 'queries'. These are designed to cover high-level issues relating to the importance of sustainable finance, as well as more specific areas of sustainable finance policymaking. InfluenceMap’s research process searches for evidence of an organization's engagement with each sustainable finance policy issue, across each of the data sources.
The following table outlines the key queries and data sources, which FinanceMap uses to assess asset managers' corporate engagement programs. Every evidence piece is assessed on a five-point scale of -2,-1,0,1,2 or NA (not applicable)/NS (not scored). All queries, data sources, and evidence pieces are weighted against one another in a matrix system to arrive at a final top-level score. Clicking on specific cells will load the underlying evidence and information on how it has been assessed.
In this section, we depict graphically the relationships the corporation has with trade associations, federations, advocacy groups and other third parties who may be acting on their behalf to influence climate change policy. Each of the columns above represents one relationship the corporation appears to have with such a third party.
In these columns, the top, dark section represents the strength of the relationship the corporation has with the influencer. For example if a corporation's senior executive also held a key role in the trade association, we would deem this to be a strong relationship and it would be on the far left of the chart above, with the weaker ones to the right. Click on these grey shaded upper sections for details of these relationships. The middle section contains a link to the organization score details of the influencer concerned, so you can see the details of its climate change policy influence. Click on the middle sections for for details of the trade associations. The lower section contains the organization score of that influencer, the lower the more negatively it is influencing climate policy.
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Douglas Flint is a board member of the IIF (last checked April 2023).
Douglas Flint (Chairman, Aberdeen Standard Investments)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Douglas Flint is a board member of the IIF
Douglas Flint (Chairman, Standard Life Aberdeen)
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Douglas Flint is a board member of the IIF (last checked April 2023).
Douglas Flint (Chairman, Aberdeen Standard Investments)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Douglas Flint is a board member of the IIF
Douglas Flint (Chairman, Standard Life Aberdeen)
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Amanda Young is chair of Sustainable and Responsible Investment Committee at the Investment Association (last checked April 2023).
Amanda Young (Chief Sustainability Officer of Investments vector, abrdn)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Stephen Bird is a board member at The Investment Association (last checked September 2023).
Stephen Bird (CEO, abrdn)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Amanda Young is chair of Sustainable and Responsible Investment Committee at the Investment Association (last checked April 2023).
Amanda Young (Chief Sustainability Officer of Investments vector, abrdn)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Stephen Bird is a board member at The Investment Association (last checked September 2023).
Stephen Bird (CEO, abrdn)
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
abrdn is a corporate member of EFAMA (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is a corporate member of EFAMA
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Standard Life Investments is a member of EFAMA
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
abrdn is a corporate member of EFAMA (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is a corporate member of EFAMA
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Standard Life Investments is a member of EFAMA
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Asset Management PLC, abrdn Life and Pensions Limited are members of the ABI (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Asset Management PLC, Aberdeen Standard Investments Life and Pensions Limited are members of the ABI
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Asset Management PLC, abrdn Life and Pensions Limited are members of the ABI (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Asset Management PLC, Aberdeen Standard Investments Life and Pensions Limited are members of the ABI
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
abrdn is a member of the Irish Association of Pension Funds which is a national association member of PensionsEurope (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is a member of AFG which is a national association member of PensionsEurope
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
abrdn is a member of the Irish Association of Pension Funds which is a national association member of PensionsEurope (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is a member of AFG which is a national association member of PensionsEurope
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
abrdn is a member of the IIGCC (last checked September 2023)
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is a member of the IIGCC. This does no longer seem to be the case (last checked April 2023),
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
abrdn is a member of the IIGCC (last checked September 2023)
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is a member of the IIGCC. This does no longer seem to be the case (last checked April 2023),
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
abrdn Private Equity is a member of Invest Europe (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is a member of Invest Europe. This does no longer seem to be the case (last checked April 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
abrdn Private Equity is a member of Invest Europe (last checked September 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
InfluenceMap Data Point on Corporate - Influencer Relationship
(1 = weak, 10 = strong)
Aberdeen Standard Investments is a member of Invest Europe. This does no longer seem to be the case (last checked April 2023).
not specified
--no extract--
Open PDF file of Data Source