CC14 guidance update: greener investments, greater uncertainty?

Abstract

Abstract This article examines the newly released Charity Commission guidance, known simply as the “CC14”. The CC14 provides investment guidance to the charity sector and has recently been renewed following the case of Butler-Sloss & Ors v The Charity Commission for England and Wales & Anor [2022] EWHC 974 (Ch). In Butler-Sloss, the High Court was asked to determine whether charitable trustees could deploy an investment plan that aligned with the Paris Agreement and excluded investments that contributed to climate change. Mr Michael Green J ruled that such an “ethical” investment plan was lawful. Following Butler-Sloss, the CC14’s use of “social investment” may indeed encourage “greener” investment opportunities amongst charitable trustees, in that the advice attempts to bring charitable trustee investment more in line with modern investment practices. However, this work opines that the guidance could be actively encouraging environmentally inspired investments at the expense of the sacrosanct fiduciary duty of investment.