Geneva, 5 November 2026 – The UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA) released its 2026 Progress Report today, showing signatories are delivering on ambition as they enter their second target-setting period.
Portfolios are becoming cleaner as carbon intensity fell from 61 to 50 tonnes of CO₂ equivalent per $1 million invested in listed equities and from 73 to 50 in corporate bonds. More than 95 percent of signatories have set targets in at least three of the alliance’s four core target categories, and from the first target-setting cycle (2020–2025), 88 percent of targets were fully achieved.
As reflected in the NZAOA’s sixth Progress Report, climate solutions investments (CSI) grew to $787 billion in 2025, up from $555 billion two years ago, representing roughly 8 percent of total assets under management. The number of signatories reporting climate solution investments rose from just 17 in 2020 to 82 in 2025. CSI includes clean energy, resilience, adaptation, nature-based solutions, carbon removal, and blended finance.
Our monitoring shows that ambition, backed by action, delivers results: signatories fully achieved 88 percent of their targets, cut the carbon intensity of their listed equity portfolios by 18 percent and invested $787 billion in climate solutions. This progress shows the results of mainstreaming climate risk management into protecting long-term financial security. With even greater rigour we will keep our portfolios transition firmly on track and translate it into real economy change.
– NZAOA Co-Chair Josselin Kalifa, Chief Investment Officer of Caisse des Dépôts Asset Management Division.
The scale of investment needed — particularly in emerging markets — makes clear that portfolio action alone is not enough. Delivering a net-zero economy requires governments, financial institutions and investors to collaborate to build the policy frameworks, bankable project pipelines and blended-finance structures that can unlock private capital at the speed and scale the transition demands.
– Co-Chair Toru Shindo, Chief Investment Officer for Office of Investment Management, United Nations Joint Staff Pension Fund
The Progress Report highlights strengthened stewardship, with engagements delegated through asset managers exceeding aggregate targets, reaching 103 percent of target levels. Private markets are identified as a critical next frontier, with work underway to improve climate data quality, manager engagement, and asset-specific target setting across private equity, infrastructure, private debt, and real estate.
A major development in 2026 was the introduction of transition targets through the fifth edition of the Target-Setting Protocol, released in March. The protocol set expectations for signatories around science-based commitments, governance and risk management, capital allocation and implementation plans, Paris Agreement-aligned policy advocacy, and transparent reporting, with a focus on companies with credible transition plans in hard-to-abate sectors.
About the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance
The UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance is a signatory-led initiative comprising 85 institutional investors with $10.5 trillion in assets under management. These investors are individually committed to aligning their investment portfolios with the Paris Agreement’s goal of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050. The NZAOA, convened by UNEP FI and PRI, with support from WWF and Global Optimism, was the first in the financial industry to define intermediate targets and provide annual progress reports.
Contact
Oliver Wagg, NZAOA Communications Lead