Pension and investment provider Aegon has shifted over £5bn of client money into ESG investment strategies.

The firm aims to move another £3.5bn this month to bring the total to over £8.5bn.

By the end of this month around a quarter of Aegon’s universal balanced fund and its lifestyle fund variants for growth stage investors will have been moved to ESG strategies.

The move is part of an ambitious overall ESG strategy for the provider. It is aiming to make its workplace pension default funds net carbon zero by 2050 and halve the company’s carbon emissions by 2030.

The firm’s TargetPlan LifePath default funds have 68% of assets for growth stage investors invested in ESG.

Tim Orton, managing director for investment solutions at Aegon, said the firm is committed to long-term ESG targets and that pension providers should take action now to make a difference to the future world we will live in.

He said: “Fourteen billion was paid into defined contribution pension schemes in 2019 making them a major source of investment.

“The scale of the assets involved means pension providers have a real opportunity to make a difference and to invest in a way that will help create a lower carbon future. We want to continue to lead the way on this.”

A recent survey from Aegon found that customers are increasingly expecting to invest in a sustainable way. Over three quarters (77%) of Aegon’s customers said that climate change is an important risk for them to consider when choosing their investments.