The impact of pension-backed investments in green housing

Green housing infrastructure has many advantages for our health, the environment and climate change, amongst others. The EU-funded JUCLFUT project will investigate the social effects of green housing projects that are financed by pension capital – an emerging key player in green investment. 

In doing so, the project will evaluate the extent to which these investments address climate objectives while respecting internationally recognised human rights to safe, adequate and affordable housing. It will also shed light on the social and gendered effects these types of investments have on households and communities.

Climate change is a complex problem that requires solutions that reach across the boundaries between local and global and economic and ecological spheres of policy and everyday life. The challenge of ensuring that the benefits and burdens of transitioning to a carbon neutral future are equitably distributed within and across communities is thus one of the most pressing currently facing humanity.

Pensions have recently emerged as key actors in the pursuit of “green” investment, due to their fiduciary duties and the sensitivity of physical assets to political, regulatory and environmental effects of climate change (Government of Canada, 2018; Gold and Scotchmer, 2015; OPTrust, 2018; Mercer, 2018). 

At the same time, their involvement in the financialization of housing (e.g. turning housing into a pure commodity, severed from its social function as shelter) is exacerbating the global housing crisis, making it increasingly difficult for growing numbers of people to access their human rights to shelter (August, 2019; Farha, 2019; Parish, 2019b). Furthermore, even while COVID-19 has made the right to housing all the more urgent, the economic fallout from the pandemic is exacerbating the crisis as growing numbers of people are now at risk of mortgage default and eviction.

This project therefore investigates the social effects of specific green housing projects financed by pension capital in order to assess the extent to which these investments are addressing climate objectives in a manner which also respects the internationally recognized human right to safe, adequate and affordable housing, and conforms to the imperative of a just transition, as defined by the EU as one which is “inclusive for all” and where “no person or place is left behind”.

The central Research Question this project will answer is: What are the social and gendered effects of pension backed investments in green housing infrastructure on households and communities?

Coordinator

• DE MONTFORT UNIVERSITY

Start date: 11 March 2022 - End date: 10 March 2024