BORDER TO COAST LAUNCHES INDUSTRY FIRST ‘JUST TRANSITION OVERLAY’
Posted on April 27th, 2026
Border to Coast Pensions Partnership (Border to Coast) has today published a first-of-its-kind Just Transition Overlay outlining how it integrates the social risks and opportunities of a transition to a lower carbon world.
An industry first, the overlay demonstrates the importance of embedding just transition principles across investments to manage long-term risk and support value creation on behalf of the LGPS pool’s 18 Partner Funds, who collectively represent close to £120bn.
“A just transition is essential for managing systemic risks and preserving long-term value. It helps ensure a transition that is fair and resilient by mitigating social risks for workers, communities and supply chains, seeking social opportunities, and focusing on place-based impacts.
“Integrating just transition is an important part of managing long-term financial risk and enhancing portfolio resilience for Partner Funds. It helps to mitigate multiple risk dimensions, including operational and legal risk that can lead to delays, cancellations, strikes, litigation, and reputational damage, posing material execution risks that can affect cash flows, project timelines and cost of capital.”
The Overlay covers investment governance, capital allocation, engagement, voting, and reporting, and formalises Border to Coast’s approach across asset classes. It highlights Border to Coast’s proactive engagement on the issue, including its recently completed engagement programme with UK banks in partnership with Royal London Asset Management, which saw significant integration by the banks and emerging best practice.
New investor guidance
Border to Coast co-chairs the IIGCC’s Just Transition Working Group and contributed to new industry guidance to support integration of just transition. This is aligned with the Net Zero Investment Framework (NZIF), a widely used guide to help set targets and produce related net zero strategies and transition plans.
Elena Vydrine, Senior Investment Specialist, IIGCC:
“Border to Coast’s Just Transition Overlay is a pioneering example of how investors can do this and put the Net Zero Investment Framework’s (NZIF) new supplementary guidance on just transition into practice. The guidance explains why just transition factors are critical for institutional investors and provides practical implementation levers aligned with NZIF alongside case studies – including from Border to Coast – to support real-world application.”
Rowan Conway, Distinguished Policy Fellow, Just Transition Finance Lab, LSE:
The publication of this overlay by Border to Coast is timely and significant. It provides clear, practical, and easily applied guidance across asset classes and the investment lifecycle. It is an exemplar of how asset owners can exercise their influence to shape responsible investment at scale.”
Nick Robins, Senior Director, Finance and Private Sector, World Resources Institute, and Founder, Just Transition Finance Lab, LSE:
“This Just Transition Overlay from Border to Coast is the most comprehensive yet from an asset owner. It shows the material investment case for the just transition and builds on real experience in both engagement and allocation. It sends a strong signal to the market about the critical importance for fund managers and companies to credibly manage the social risks and opportunities of climate action in order to secure resilient long-term returns.”
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