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States urged to ensure that pension fund investments are rights-respecting

States urged to ensure that pension fund investments are rights-respecting

States urged to ensure that pension fund investments are rights-respecting and climate-sensitive

 

 

Climate change poses an ‘existential threat’ to humanity, including threats to livelihoods, food security, health, stability and to life, warned UN Secretary General, António Guterres, in a recent speech. As we have seen from the recent report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change on global warming of 1.5 C, those impacts and threats are now of such a scale, severity and prevalence, that it will be impossible to protect and realise human rights in the remainder of the 21th century, without urgently addressing climate change. A number of human rights treaty bodies (responsible for monitoring the implementation of the human rights treaties) (HRTBs) in their recent recommendations to States, have confirmed that States have human rights obligations to address climate change.

Recently the HRTBs have made it clear that these obligations extend to the crucial commitment in the Paris Agreement to ‘Making finance flows consistent with a pathway towards low greenhouse gas emissions and climate-resilient development’ (Art 2.1(c)). A rapid transformation to a low-carbon economy will require high levels of investments in the next decades to shift away from fossil fuels and towards climate-friendly activities.

According to OECD data, pension assets in the OECD countries reached a total of USD 43.4 trillion in 2017, of which USD 28.5 trillion corresponds to pension funds. Given the very significant value of assets in pension funds (public and private), they have a fundamental role to play in fighting climate change and protecting against rights violations, by steering investments away from carbon intensive activities and investing their assets in solutions such as renewable energy.

Pension funds have legal obligations related to their fiduciary duties, to consider long and medium-term risks, such as those related to climate change that could have adverse effects on their investments. Such risks include physical impacts of climate change on pension fund assets and investments, but also the increasingly evident risk of stranded assets and the associated legal risks of failing to address the climate-related risks.

Many pension funds are already responding to those risks. The Norway Government Pension Fund Global (GPFG), who manage £770 billion of Norway’s assets, divested from coal investments in 2015 and decided in 2019 to divest from oil and gas exploration investments. Similarly, as part of a broader movement, the UK Parliament Pension Fund, the UK’s University Pension Fund, and other public pension funds, are divesting from fossil fuels and investing in clean energy technologies.

However, the role of States is also pivotal in influencing pension fund investments to respect and protect rights from the negative impacts of climate change. Through regulation and policy-making, States can oblige, incentivise and model human rights respecting, climate-sensitive action by financial actors, including pension funds.

Some States are making progress. In 2015 France became the first State to introduce mandatory climate change-related reporting for institutional investors and the EU recently revised the requirements for pension schemes, mandating for the first time that they must evaluate and disclose risks such as climate change and resource scarcity. Nevertheless, a lot more needs to be done, since one recent report found that ‘Over 60% of the world’s largest public pension funds have little or no strategy on climate change’.

In this respect, the HRTBs have an important role to play. A number of treaty bodies have made recommendations to States regarding the human rights impacts of pension fund investments. For example, the Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights recommended that Sweden regulate and oversee investments made in and outside the country, by pension funds, in order to prevent negative impacts from such investments on the enjoyment of economic, social and cultural rights by local populations (COB Sweden 2016).

The same Committee, in 2013 raised concerns with Norway (COB Norway 2013) that ‘the various steps taken by the State party in the context of the social responsibility of the Government Pension Fund Global have not included the institutionalization of systematic human rights impact assessments of its investments.’

Recognising the critical role of financial flows in arresting climate change, recently two Committees have highlighted State human rights obligations with respect to pension funds and climate change. The Committee on the Rights of the Child asked Luxembourg to provide information about ‘policies implemented by the State party to ensure that private and publicly owned financial institutions, including the Luxembourg Pension Fund, take into consideration the implications for climate change of their investments and the resulting harmful impact on children’ (LOIs Luxembourg 2019).

Further, the Committee on the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women, in preparation for its review of Sweden’s performance on women’s rights, asked Sweden to provide information on:

‘the oversight mechanisms in place to regulate the investments made abroad by enterprises domiciled under the State party’s jurisdiction, including the Swedish National Pension Funds, in order to prevent the negative impact of such investments on women’s and girls’ rights.’

And in the context of climate change:

‘whether a gender perspective has been incorporated into current financial and fiscal policies and bank regulations, including regulations for government-backed institutions, aimed at reducing further the carbon footprint of the State party.’

These recent statements demonstrate that the HRTBs are aware of the potential for pension fund investments to impact human rights, both positively and negatively, through their action or inaction on climate change. The HRTBs have highlighted on many occasions that States’ human rights obligations require them to take active measures to mitigate climate change. These more recent recommendations recognise that one significant step that States should take in this regard, is ensuring, through regulation, oversight and leadership, that pension funds’ investments are rights-respecting and climate sensitive.

By Vicente Silva (GI-ESCR intern) and Lucy McKernan (GI-ESCR Geneva Representative)

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Climate and Environmental Justice

We have advanced rights-based and gender-transformative transition frameworks through research that centres the lived experiences of women and marginalised communities on the frontlines of extractive energy policies, promoting climate and energy frameworks attentive to the social and care-related impacts of transition pathways. We have developed a clear vision for a gender-just transition, firmly rooted in gender and human rights norms, establishing both the legal basis and the direction for the transformative changes our planet and societies urgently need. In particular, the ‘Guiding Principles for Gender Equality and Human Rights in the Energy Transition’, a collective effort built through online consultations, an in-person workshop and multiple rounds of revision with activists, practitioners and experts from around the world, outline a transformative vision for reshaping global energy systems through a human rights and gender equality lens.

Our work recognises that the climate emergency is both an existential threat and an opportunity to reimagine societies built on social, gender, economic and environmental justice. We ground our advocacy in feminist and intersectional principles, prioritising the agency and perspectives of communities in the Global South who have contributed the least to the climate emergency yet face its most devastating consequences. Central to our approach is the understanding that energy is not merely a commodity but a fundamental human right; essential for dignity, health, education, work and the realisation of countless other rights. We challenge approaches to the energy transition that risk replicating the harmful patterns of fossil fuel extraction and, instead, advocate for transformative policies that ensure human rights and gender equality as central to building climate-resilient societies rooted in dignity, justice and planetary well-being.

What's next?

We will continue to challenge approaches that treat energy transition as merely a technical shift, instead positioning it as an opportunity to reimagine economies and societies rooted in dignity for all, with particular attention to communities in the Global South who have contributed least to the climate emergency yet are most exposed to its worst effects.

We will connect community-level evidence and the lived experiences of those on the frontlines of extractive policies to national reform and global norm-setting, breaking down silos between human rights, gender, and climate movements, and advancing a shared vision that recognises just transitions as not only fundamental to achieving climate-resilient and sustainable societies, but as transformative pathways that advance social and gender equality, redistribute power and resources equitably, and ensure that energy systems serve the public good rather than profit.

We will mainstream rights-based and genderjust transition priorities in key multilateral spaces (particularly, within the Just Transition Work Programme and the to-be-developed Just Transition Mechanism, within the UNFCCC) to guarantee that just transitions are advanced at all levels.

We will also translate our work, through strategic advocacy, into at least two concrete policy wins, whether promoted, adopted, implemented, or scaled, in priority countries (Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Mexico, Colombia, South Africa, or Kenya), ensuring these policies align with human rights standards, centre gender equality, and reflect the needs and views of affected communities.

We will build momentum for the progressive recognition of the right to sustainable energy to shift dominant narratives away from purely extractive solutions that sideline gendered impacts, community participation, and Global South perspectives.

Economic Justice and Climate Finance

Our work has transformed the global discussion on fiscal policy in a more just, emancipatory and sustainable direction. Our approach has combined both high-level, expert contributions within decisionmaking circles, with bold, impactful work on narrative change with the general public.

We have been instrumental in the inclusion of human rights as a guiding principle of the future United Nations Framework Convention on International Tax Cooperation, a multilateral instrument with the potential of raising approx. USD 492 billion per year in public revenues currently foregone to global tax abuse. In the process leading to the ‘Compromiso de Sevilla’ decided at FfD4, we proposed and succeeded in creating a specific human rights workstream within the Civil Society Financing for Development Mechanism, which was critical to ensure that explicit commitments on the matter were included in the negotiating outcome. In a context of cutbacks in multilateral institutions, we have amplified the capacities of technical experts, providing rigorous technical support and leveraging our influence to ensure the enactments of groundbreaking standard-setting instruments, such as the 2025 UN Committee on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights Statement on Fiscal Policy and Human Rights, and the first ex oficio hearing on the Inter-American Commission of Human Rights on Fiscal and Economic Policies to Address Poverty and Structural Inequality, leading to an upcoming thematic resolution on the matter. We have also bridged the silos between multilateral tax discussions and climate finance debates, promoting ambitious financing commitments to increase international and domestic resource mobilisation during COP 28, 29 and 30.

At the regional level, our engagement with fiscal cooperation platforms such as the Platform for Fiscal Cooperation of Latin America and the Caribbean (PTLAC), where we are member of its Civil Society Consultative Council, and the African Anti-IFFs Policy Tracker, for which we participated in the pilot mission in Ivory Coast together with Tax Justice Network Africa (TJNA), have been critical in cementing a growing engagement between tax administrations and ministries of finance with international legal experts, exploring actionable and transformative initiatives, such as the taxation of high-net-worth individuals, beneficial ownership registries and corporate countryby-country reports, to be implemented at the international level.

At the local level, our interventions in fiscal reform debates in Chile, Brazil, Colombia and Nigeria have contributed to shaping legislative outcomes in a more progressive, rights-compliant direction.

As for our leadership in narrative change, we have a measurable track record in delivering tailored, innovative campaigns which have decisively expanded economic justice constituencies by appealing to a broader tent. In Latin America and the Caribbean, we created the ‘Date Cuenta’ campaign, coordinating over 40 organisations across civil society to deliver plain language, innovative messaging connecting progressive fiscal reforms to the financing of health, education and social protection. ‘Date Cuenta’ generated over 55 original campaign messages that were tailored to the realities of seven priority countries (Argentina, Chile, Colombia, Mexico, Paraguay, Peru and Honduras) and disseminated in Spanish, Portuguese and English. In doing so, we convened more than 65 online co-creation workshops with partners, coordinating a unified communications strategy which combined digital outreach, press and media coverage, and collaboration with influencers. Ultimately, ‘Date Cuenta’ resulted in more than 60,000 interactions on social media, coverage in major regional and international media outlets, including El País, Deutsche Welle, Bloomberg and France 24, and the participation of at least 63 social media influencers through 58 dedicated publications. In collaboration with Fundación Gabo and the Friedrich Ebert Stiftung, we also organised a two-day workshop in Bogota with 20 journalists from 13 countries, building a regional network trained in a human rights-based approach to fiscal policy that has since generated published media coverage on outlets such as La Diaria, Ciper, El Diario Ar and Milenio. Through ‘Date Cuenta’ and our regional advocacy, we strengthened civil society engagement in key processes, including the Financing for Development track and FfD4, co-organised highlevel dialogues with states and civil society from Latin America and Africa.

What's next?

We will shape the UN Tax Convention and its Protocols so they embed human rights principles, and we will stay engaged through follow-up processes (including the expected Conference of the Parties) to support effective implementation. We will keep linking tax and climate finance so that new resources mobilised through fiscal cooperation are channelled to adaptation, mitigation, and loss and damage, in line with UNFCCC commitments.

Public Services for Care Societies

We have translated participatory research into accountability and policy outcomes.

In Ivory Coast, our work with Mouvement Ivoirien des Droits Humains and affected communities since 2023 exposed how privatisation and lack of accountability restrict access to quality healthcare. It contributed to the closure of 1,022 illegal private health centres, an executive instrument strengthening the regulation of private hospitals across the country, and the creation of a permanent complaints management committee in healthcare through a bylaw issued by the prefect of Gagnoa. Partners engaged through this process also advanced concrete improvements at facility level: members of the Gagnoa Midwives Association who took part in the participatory action research pooled resources to renovate the neonatal unit of the Regional Hospital, and the Director of the Gagnoa General Hospital launched an action plan to expand services and improve patient reception, with the facility receiving the award for best hospital in the country in 2025.

In Kenya, our research with the Mathare Education Taskforce documented the absence of public schools and the expansion of private provision, evidencing impacts on households and caregivers and strengthening demands for free, quality public education. This work contributed to stronger community agency and collective organisation, alongside ongoing strategies ranging from communications to litigation to secure a public school in the area, some involving GI-ESCR and others led independently.

Across Africa, this work is complemented by a multi-country study examining the human rights implications of austerity in education and health, including how regressive fiscal policies, rising debt burdens and persistent underinvestment undermine the financing and delivery of public services.

In Latin America, from 29 November to 2 December 2021, over a thousand representatives from over one hundred countries, from grassroots movements, advocacy, human rights, and development organisations, feminist movements, trade unions, and other civil society organisations, met in Santiago, Chile, and virtually, to discuss the critical role of public services for our future. Following the meeting, the Santiago Declaration on Public Services was adopted to demand universal access to quality, gender-transformative and equitable public services as the foundation of a fair and just society.

We are currently advancing work on care systems, linking public services and fiscal justice through integrated research, advocacy and communications, including a regional campaign framing care as a collective responsibility requiring sustained public investment.

What's next?

In Ivory Coast, we will evaluate and strengthen the complaints management committee and position it as a replicable model for other health facilities. In Kenya, we will support the Mathare community to co-design a model public school for Mabatini and Ngei wards, grounded in human rights standards. Building on our multi-country austerity study, we will drive national advocacy on financing for education and health: advancing reforms in Ghana; launching a fiscal policy and public services financing agenda in Kenya through the CESCR process and targeted coalition work; and, in Nigeria, using the new tax acts in force since 1 January 2026 to catalyse a national accountability campaign for adequately funded, quality public services. In Latin America, we will amplify locally led care pilots across 8 countries and turn lessons into influence—advancing care policies that strengthen care organisations, protect care workers’ rights, support unpaid caregivers, include disability and family networks, and redistribute care more equitably.