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Summary

However, as you will see in the update, we do retain concerns about the Institution of Mechanical Engineers’ recent record as follows: • continuing financial and other ties to fossil fuels and arms companies; • the lack of readily available transparency regarding your investments in specific companies; • relatively lax policies with respect to financial ties to fossil fuels and arms companies benc. [...] in line with the recommendations of the ShareAction report on investment managers5, strengthen the due diligence of your asset manager selection by reviewing their performance in the areas of climate- related voting and engagement, climate-related policy commitments and accounting for impacts of investments, and be aware that signing up to supportive initiatives such as the PRI or Climate Action 1. [...] For example, the Geological Society has introduced investment policies that exclude arms and the most carbon-emitting fossil fuels – thermal coal and tar sands – and is going further than this by not currently investing in any form of fossil fuel, whilst the Royal Meteorological Society has excluded investment in fossil fuels and arms, and the Institute of Materials, Minerals and Mining has ceased. [...] We believe the shift in wider expectations about good climate governance means that the reputational sensitivity of the issue has only risen since the publication of the Irresponsible Science report, especially given the UK’s hosting of COP26 this year and the resulting international attention on UK carbon emissions, goals and institutions as well as the recent ruling by a Dutch court that Shell m. [...] Similarly, the continued controversy over UK arms exports which contribute to breaches of international humanitarian law (such as those to Saudi Arabia) and the statement by the UN Secretary General’s office that the UK government decision in March to increase the size of the nation’s nuclear warhead stockpile by 44% is a breach of Article VI of the Nuclear Non Proliferation Treaty11 is also likel.