(IPE.com) - The integration of climate change into portfolio management remains a difficult task but not doing so is a failure of fiduciary care by asset managers, an institutional investor has claimed.

Carlos Joly, chairman of the Climate Change Scientific Committee of Natixis Asset Management, told IPE the integration of climate change into portfolio management is still in its early stages.

"One way is to take the narrow thematic approach such as investing in alternative energy funds," he said. "However, that is unsatisfactory for us because it does not address the breadth of climate change impacts throughout the economy. It is also a niche approach, which all investors tend to enter and exit at the same time. Carbon footprinting on an index is a step forward from the thematic approach, but ultimately does not reflect the solutions to the problems," argued Joly.