UK charity endowment manager Nesta Trust announced that it has transferred a £120 million (USD$160 million) investment mandate from U.S.-based Northern Trust Asset Management (NTAM) to European asset manager Amundi, stating that the move is a “direct consequence” of NTAM’s departure from climate-focused investment groups Net Zero Asset Managers Initiative (NZAMI) and Climate Action 100+ (CA100+).

Nesta Trust said that the decision to transfer assets from NTAM was made as part of it “commitment to reducing global greenhouse emissions,” and to ensure that its investments support climate action.

Nesta Trust added:

“Nesta Trust determined that maintaining funds with Northern Trust was incompatible with its mission to build a sustainable future, while Amundi has maintained its climate commitments, including membership of Climate Action 100+ and its signature of the NZAM initiative.”

The Nesta Trust manages and governs the endowment that funds the UK research and innovation foundation Nesta’s activities. The £120 million passive global equity portfolio transferred to Amundi represents more than one quarter of its portfolio.

NTAM’s mandate loss highlight the tensions faced by global asset managers dealing with increasingly disparate views over the role of ESG considerations in investment decision making, with political pressure in the U.S. leading some asset owners and funds to exclude managers with a sustainability focus and anti-ESG politicians even warning asset managers against considering sustainability factors, while European funds often require a more active sustainability focus in their mandate considerations.

NTAM withdrew from NZAM and CA100+ in early 2025, as part of a wave of departures of U.S. asset managers from climate-related coalitions shortly after the election of Donald Trump as U.S. President, and following the launch of a multistate lawsuit in late 2024 accusing several large asset managers of violating antitrust laws and conspiring to use sustainable investment initiatives to manipulate coal markets, citing their participation in groups such as NZAM.

Jenny Segal, Nesta Trust Chief Investment Officer, said:

“Asset managers that step back from climate action initiatives risk compromising their stewardship and so we took the decision that Amundi was a better home for Nesta’s global equity investments. We hope that our disinvestment shows that asset owners do not have to silently accept a roll-back of climate commitments and that this shows others they can hold their fund managers to a high standard.”

Following the departure of asset managers in early 2025, NZAM suspended its operations, citing “recent developments in the U.S. and different regulatory and client expectations in investors’ respective jurisdictions.” The coalition relaunched in February 2026, along with the release of a new signatory commitment, which carefully navigated the initiative’s alignment with global net zero goals while avoiding issues that drew political and regulatory scrutiny. More than 250 asset managers, including Amundi, remained as signatories at the re-launch, while the majority of large U.S. asset managers did not rejoin.

Eric Bramoullé, CEO of Amundi UK, said:

“Clients are increasingly seeking to ensure that their assets are invested in a way that reflects their responsible investment commitments and supports the transition to a more sustainable economic system.”

Sustainability-focused investment groups applauded Nesta’s announcement, even while acknowledging the difficult position that the anti-ESG movement has created for some asset managers.

Charlotte O’Leary, CEO of Investors for Purpose, said:

“We recognise that asset managers are operating in an increasingly polarised environment, where balancing diverse client expectations on ESG is genuinely challenging, and not every step back from a climate commitment reflects a step back from climate risk management. That said, climate risk is investment risk, and the direction of travel matters.”