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Climate Stewardship 2030 programme

Driving systemic climate action

29 April 2025 4 minute read
Authors

Designed to support our holistic stewardship approach, Aviva Investors adopted its Climate Stewardship 2030 programme (CS30) in 2024.

Important information

Read this article to understand:

  • The key features of our climate stewardship 2030 programme
  • How our value-chain engagement complements direct corporate engagement
  • The progress we made in 2024

Over recent years, we have gained valuable insights into effective climate engagement, which we used to design an enhanced programme, CS30.

CS30 is founded on our holistic stewardship approach, recognising the importance of engaging across corporates, sectors and value chains to accelerate the transition by creating a more enabling environment.1  This holistic, long-term strategy aims to help address corporate practices and systemic barriers, to drive sustainable value creation.

Key features of the CS30 programme

The CS30 programme comprises two core components which work together: direct corporate engagement and value chain engagement (see Figure 1). Key features include:

Direct corporate engagement:

  • Aims to engage with at least 100 supply- and demand-side companies responsible for at least 50 per cent of Aviva Investors' financed emissions in material sectors by 2030. This will initially focus on the assets we manage on behalf of Aviva Group, but we expect to expand the scope over time, based on materiality, evolving climate risks, and market conditions.
  • Using the industry-standard Net Zero Investment Framework, with additional proprietary indicators for a robust and nuanced assessment approach, and monitoring alignment annually.2

Value-chain engagement:

  • Supporting high-impact value-chain mobilisation by convening key players across hard-to-abate sectors with the aim of driving tangible, lasting progress by influencing policies, technologies, and financial incentives.3 

Figure 1: CS30 Programme

CS30 Programme

Source: Aviva Investors, as of March 31, 2025.

 

 

Aviva Investors’ sustainable investing function leads and coordinates the execution of these engagement commitments, in collaboration with investment teams and Aviva’s public policy team.

The types of topics we will discuss with companies throughout this engagement programme include:

  • Emissions reduction targets
  • Transition plans, including decarbonisation strategy, capital allocation and just transition
  • Governance and remuneration, including board accountability and climate-linked remuneration
  • Climate disclosures, covering Scope 1, 2 and 3 emissions
  • Policy advocacy

CS30 progress

In 2024, we conducted over 135 engagements with 86 companies in the CS30 programme, covering 77.5 per cent of Aviva’s financed emissions.4 We observed 50 outcomes aligned to our engagement asks in companies across a variety of sectors.5

We also held six roundtables, engaging over 45 stakeholders from key sectors, including aviation, surface transport, buildings, power, heavy industry, and agriculture.6 The resulting insights have fed directly into our policy advocacy, including the policy roadmap we published in July 2024, as well as our consultation responses.7 For instance, they informed our latest submission to the UK government’s industrial strategy consultation, “Invest 2035”. The insights have also shaped our investment strategies across various sectors.8

References

  1. Louise Piffaut et al., “Only Connect: How a holistic approach to investment stewardship can enhance client outcomes”, Aviva Investors, September 27, 2024.
  2. The Net Zero Investment Framework’s criteria for corporate transition plans provides six criteria to assess listed equity and corporate fixed income alignment with net-zero for high impact sectors. See “Net Zero Investment Framework: Implementation Guide”, IIGCC, March 2021.
  3. Louise Wihlborn, Nick Molho, “Building bridges to net zero: Mobilising value chains for decarbonisation”, Aviva Investors, November 25, 2024.
  4. Financed emissions are based on the current 100 in-scope companies. This value may be subject to change as the financed emissions calculation will vary based on corporate reporting updates and investment exposure, which could also impact in-scope companies.
  5. Given the multiyear process of engagement, outcomes observed in 2024 may relate to previous years’ engagements conducted with companies as part of CEEP.
  6. One roundtable (aviation) was held in 2023, as part of our previous programme, which influenced our updated approach to CS30.
  7. Nick Molho, Sophie English, “Boosting low-carbon investment in the UK: A Policy Roadmap”, Aviva Investors, July 16, 2024.
  8. Louise Wihlborn, Nick Molho, “Building bridges to net zero: Mobilising value chains for decarbonisation”, Aviva Investors, November 25, 2024.

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