Since its creation in 2005, the French public pension fund for civil servants, ERAFP, has taken an unusually expansive approach to responsible investment, applying ESG criteria across 100% of its portfolio long before such practices became standard among institutional investors.
The €50 billion ($57 billion) pension fund has continued to deepen that commitment through increasingly detailed climate, biodiversity and stewardship policies integrated across asset classes. Its climate strategy includes a commitment to net-zero portfolio emissions by 2050 through the Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance, alongside interim decarbonisation targets and a fossil fuel policy phasing out coal exposure by 2030 in OECD countries and 2040 globally.
More recently, ERAFP has expanded investment in transition-focused assets, with roughly €6.3 billion allocated to climate and ecological transition strategies, including green bonds, infrastructure, forestry and water-related investments. Separately, it has invested more than €700 million in residential housing for French civil servants in high-demand regions.
Stewardship remains central to the fund's approach. In 2025, ERAFP and its asset managers conducted more than 1,200 ESG engagements covering 538 companies, while voting policies opposed roughly one-third of shareholder resolutions where governance, climate or social concerns were identified.
Also, winning the award for Sustainable investment engagement initiative of the year – EMEA, ERAFP has sought to redefine how investors and companies engage on one of the most contentious issues in climate finance: coal.
The engagement focused on Veolia, a significant portfolio emitter whose coal exposure risked exclusion under ERAFP's fossil fuel policy. Rather than following a traditional escalation model, the initiative evolved into a multi-year process centred on collaborative problem-solving and technical co-construction between investors and company management.
The dialogue began in 2022 and accelerated after Veolia joined the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change Net Zero Engagement Initiative 18 months later. A coalition of investors worked with the company to improve climate disclosures, strengthen transition planning and secure a Science Based Targets initiative (SBTi) 1.5°C validation.
The engagement contributed to Veolia publishing its first comprehensive climate report in 2024. In 2025, the company and investors issued a joint public statement recognising the value of the collaboration.
Coal remained the most sensitive issue, particularly regarding Veolia's operations in China. Through confidential workshops in 2025 and 2026, involving investors, consultants and executives, the initiative moved beyond standard stewardship discussions into practical testing of operational and policy solutions, including improved coal-related disclosures, strategies to reduce coal use and joint advocacy around alternatives to coal infrastructure.
The Sustainable Investment Awards judges praised the "100% assets covered by the RI [responsible investment] policy", the industry leadership the pension fund has shown, alongside its "high impact through engagement", with one judge calling it "a transformational leader compared to peers".