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Learn How to Create a Transition Plan 

Your guide to investor climate action plans

Investor Climate Action Plans or ICAPs detail actions across four interlocking areas: investment, corporate engagement, policy advocacy, and investor disclosure. Governance is a cross-cutting theme across all four areas. Investors can use the ICAPs Expectations Ladder in several ways including:

• Assessing your approach to managing climate change risk and opportunity
• Publishing a standalone ICAP
• Embedding elements of the ICAPs into your climate change strategies and disclosures.
• Communicating your current and future activities to stakeholders

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The ICAPs Expectations Ladder

The ICAPs Expectations Ladder provides a single, comprehensive framework for self-assessment and transition planning, which draws on existing initiatives and resources.

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The ICAPs Guidance

The ICAPs Guidance helps investors to self-assess where they are on the Expectations Ladder, understand the main actions they can take to strengthen their approach, communicate this information to colleagues, and navigate a growing number of climate-related initiatives and reporting expectations.

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Net Zero Investment Framework

For investors who have made net zero emissions commitments to address their climate-related risks, the Net Zero Investment Framework lays out practical actions, metrics, and methodologies investors can use to assess and manage climate risk and net zero alignments in their portfolios.

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“Financial institutions that have made commitments should develop transition plans with clear practices, targets, and metrics. And that they should support their clients and portfolio companies in adopting their own transition plans.”

Janet Yellen

Janet Yellen

U.S. Treasury Secretary

Your guide to climate transition action plans

Climate Transition Action Plans or CTAPs detail actions throughout the business—including core business and growth strategies, operations and finance, procurement, policy engagement, and customer engagement. The six action steps for creating a robust climate transition action plan are:

1. Setting goals and science-based targets
2. Decarbonizing the business
3. Ensuring a just transition
4. Advocating for public policy
5. Supporting integration and accountability
6. Tracking and reporting progress

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 “Ceres’ report makes the case for near-term investments that have long-term benefits while meeting companies where they are today.”

Jennifer DuBuisson

Jennifer DuBuisson

Senior Director of Sustainability, Levi Strauss & Company

Company and investor case studies

"As a company dependent on agricultural and energy-intensive chemical ingredients, we believe that transitioning to become a lower emission business has many benefits. It increases resilience, improves efficiency, and future-proofs our value chain against transition risks such as carbon prices, while sparking innovation and helping to attract the best talent. In proactively managing our transition to net zero, we also ensure we respond to the opportunities and risks highlighted through our Task Force on Climate-related Financial Disclosures scenario analysis process.”

“Since 2015, Mars has included emissions from land use change in our Scope 3 emissions tracking. While this increased our GHG footprint, making that quantitative connection to our GHG goals accelerated our deforestation work and has been an important contributor to reducing our overall emissions… Thanks to a detailed analysis of our Scope 3 emissions, we know the opportunity to transition to renewable electricity up and down.”

CalPERS’ Investor Climate Action Plan (ICAP), known as the Sustainable Investments 2030 Plan, will provide outperformance and a meaningful impact on the trajectory of global emissions. It puts the fund’s portfolio on a pathway to net zero by 2050 through a target investment of $100 billion in climate solutions by 2030, taking shareowner action to improve the largest emitting companies’ net zero strategies, and engaging the investment industry and government regulators to support transitioning the broader economy to net zero.

For more than a decade, the New York State Common Retirement Fund (NYS Common), one of the largest public pension funds in the U.S. and recently valued at around $279.7 billion, has been a cutting-edge sustainable investment leader. The Fund has long believed climate change is one of the most important risks and opportunities for its portfolio and members’ retirement savings. Its case study covers all the pillars of the ICAPs Expectation Ladder.

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We equip investors and companies with the tools to create, share, and evaluate climate transition plans.

“Ceres’ guidance is an important tool that can help equip companies across the sustainability spectrum to make progress, overcome challenges, and improve over time.”

Meaghan Krohn

Meaghan Krohn

Lead Climate Strategist, Dell Technologies

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