UK court rules that charitable trusts can be climate-friendly

Here’s news from this note from Anna Guyer about this UK court judgment:

The High Court has just ruled that charity trustees can invest to prevent climate breakdown. In this momentous new judgment, the High Court has confirmed that charity trustees can align their investments with the goals of the Paris Agreement to avoid the worst impacts of climate change – even where this involves financial risk.

This is the first time a court has confirmed that trustees can adopt such investment policies and opens the door to charities adopting more ambitious Paris-aligned investment approaches and will give comfort to trustees who believe this approach is in the interests of their charity’s purposes.

Also see this note from Professor Paul Watchman about how “The Freshfields Report” argued for this fiduciary duties approach back in 2005…