The interpretation of fiduciary duty must change to mean more than just money and include looking after the environment and society as well, climate researcher and author, Mike Berners-Lee, has said.

Speaking at the Pensions and Savings Lifetime Association (PLSA) Investment Conference 2025, Berners-Lee emphasised that this was a “must-win battle”, suggesting that climate has huge implications for businesses including pension funds.

He encouraged asset owners to send a message to their asset managers about the way they interpret fiduciary duty.

And, for asset managers, he suggested that they contact their asset owners and ask them to send a message that gives their managers clear permission to interpret fiduciary duty to mean "more".

"It's pretty clear to me that people want not just to be comfortable in retirement, but they want to feel comfortable about how they get their money in retirement,” he said.

“Pension schemes are pretty opaque things. If you can get to that rare position of actually being trustworthy then that is like gold dust.

“People are fed up with funds that call themselves ethical, but when you look under the bonnet it is not as good as it appears.

“If you can get beyond that to be trusted, there is definitely a market of some kind in there.”

He noted that to do that, the way pension schemes assess what companies they invest in requires a “detailed, holistic” assessment.

“It’s not a superficial question you can ask, you definitely can’t go and buy some data off a spreadsheet to tell you what to invest in,” he explained.

He argued that right now is the moment to stand up and be accountable and to look around as things are evolving.

“I would really encourage everybody to do as I plead, I think it’s important for all of us to be brave and honest at work and not to put up with situations in which anybody is talking as if this isn’t a hugely important thing on the agenda,” he said.

“This has to be a critical moment for clarity. However bad things get, the more honest the environment we are in, the better our ability to deal with whatever that situation is.”

He also argued that it is not just about climate, despite the conversation tending to revolve around this.

“Climate gets used by a lot of people as a shorthand for a whole of things,” he said.

“We just need to learn to be much more careful otherwise pensions are going to be worth less. Pensions are only going to be worth anything if we have some kind of future.”

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