Morgan Stanley IM launches $1 billion climate-focused private equity strategy

LONDON (Reuters) - Morgan Stanley Investment Management said on Monday it had launched a new $1 billion private equity strategy to invest in companies which will remove 1 gigaton of carbon dioxide emissions from the atmosphere by 2050 or prevent that amount entering the atmosphere.

Companies need trillions of dollars of investment to help them reduce carbon emissions and to develop new low-carbon technologies to meet the aims of the Paris Agreement to limit global warming.

Through the 1GT strategy, MSIM will invest in private companies in North America and Europe, whose activities aim to collectively prevent or remove 1GT of emissions.

Investments will focus on the mobility, power, sustainable food and agriculture sectors and circular economy and deliver both financial returns and positive environmental impact, MSIM said.

MSIM said it would also tie some of the 1GT investment team's compensation to the emissions performance of underlying investments.

"We believe that in order to catalyse meaningful progress in climate solutions, a significant portion of financial incentives should be linked to such climate goals," Vikram Raju, MSIM's head of climate investing and the 1GT Platform, said in a statement.

MSIM said it has already deployed $600 million of capital to companies seeking to mitigate climate change since 2015. The $1 billion will be in addition to this amount.

(Reporting by Virginia Furness. Editing by Jane Merriman)

By Virginia Furness