The Ethos Foundation is expanding its training programme to include a module dedicated to climate change. Available online, it provides pension fund representatives with the tools to understand the climate-related risks facing their allocations and the measures they can take to address them. The module is supported by concrete examples and practical advice.
Heatwaves, forest fires, droughts, floods, tornadoes and mudslides. For those who still had any doubts, the summer of 2026 served as a rude awakening. For others, these events are simply the large-scale manifestation of the effects of climate change that scientists have been warning us about for decades. It is also a foretaste of what lies ahead in the coming years. The United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) has now officially confirmed what everyone suspected: the +1.5 °C threshold will soon be crossed. It is now urgent to focus all efforts on limiting the rise in temperatures to +1.8 °C, the only remaining option to avoid the catastrophic and irreversible consequences of climate change.
Against this backdrop, the Ethos Foundation is launching its new training module dedicated to the climate strategies of institutional investors. These strategies aim to limit greenhouse gas emissions of their investments and protect their portfolios against the numerous risks associated with climate change. While all the indicators are currently flashing red, there is still time for everyone to take action to combat climate change.
The module is primarily aimed at pension fund representatives whose role is to manage pension assets over the very long term. It provides an understanding of the economic and financial issues posed by climate change and then identifies the tools available to investors – and therefore to pension funds – to manage these issues effectively.
Concrete and effective measures
After a brief introduction to the various risks associated with climate change (physical, operational, regulatory, legal, etc.), the module sets out a list of concrete measures available to investors to address these risks, illustrated with numerous examples and accompanied by practical advice.
Investors have several tools at their disposal to align their allocations with ambitious climate targets. Firstly, they can assess their portfolio’s resilience to climate risks using different temperature rise scenarios, and using this information to develop their own climate strategy and optimise strategic asset allocation.
They can also define investment criteria and adopt sustainable and responsible approaches tailored to their climate objectives. Complementary approaches that can be combined within a single asset class or applied across the entire portfolio include voting at general meetings, shareholder engagement, exclusions, the ‘best-in-class’ approach, the integration of ESG criteria, and impact investing. Finally, when selecting external fund managers, investors can encourage them to take these climate risks and objectives into account in the management of allocations.
“Raising awareness and training institutional investors on sustainability issues has been one of the Ethos Foundation’s goals since its inception,” recalls Cécile Biccari, in charge of Ethos’s education program. “This climate module is fully in line with this mission, namely to provide pension fund representatives with the knowledge they need to fully exercise their responsibility as long-term investors.”
An evolving library of modules
This climate module enriches the training programme for pension fund representatives launched in September 2024 by the Ethos Foundation. The programme is dedicated to the issues of sustainable and responsible investment.
A basic training course provides a better understanding of the key elements of sustainable finance. It is divided into five main modules – introduction to sustainability, fiduciary duty, regulations, investment decisions and stewardship – which are subdivided into micro-modules to allow for modular, self-paced learning for each user.
In addition, a library of micro-learning modules complements this basic training. It includes a thematic module dedicated to the Swiss Pension Fund Association’s (ASIP) ESG reporting standard, which is designed to support both drafters and readers in the preparation and understanding of Swiss pension funds’ sustainability reports.
