The Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) released its 2025 annual report on Global Responsible Investment Trends (March 2025). PRI is a network of institutional investors from across the work working to integrate ESG factors into their investment strategies. The report analyses data from 3,048 PRI signatories who reported across all core indicators in 2024 through the PRI’s Reporting Framework, building on previous analyses from 2022 to 2024.
Human Level’s Take:
- New data from the Principles for Responsible Investment (PRI) shows a clear trend: investors see ESG and responsible investment as central to long-term value creation, risk management and financial performance.
- For example, 80% of PRI signatories—managing over US$82.7 trillion—are identifying climate-related risks and opportunities in their portfolios, and 65% are taking action to address sustainability outcomes, including through capital allocation and stewardship. Nearly half cite financial materiality as core to their investment case.
- Climate is a top priority. Stewardship tools like engagement and proxy voting are widely used, with over 500 signatories supporting initiatives like Climate Action 100+. Green bonds, transition finance and exclusions are also shaping capital allocation strategies.
- Human rights matter more than ever to investors, in part driven by policymakers’ growing focus on human rights and human rights due diligence. 64% of investors have human rights policies, and one-third of investors are conducting human rights due diligence aligned with the UN Guiding Principles on Business & Human Rights.
- For companies, the continued attention from investors on sustainability, including climate and human rights, is a signal that this trend is not likely to fade even as sustainability legislation seesaws globally. PRI’s analysis also suggests that conducting strong HRDD is one of the key ways for companies to systematically embed human rights into their core business, helping them to meet the expectations of a growing pool of investors focused on responsible investment.
Some key takeaways:
- Investors see a business case for responsible investment : Investor signatories to the Principles for Responsible Investment are increasingly integrating responsible investment practices to enhance risk-adjusted returns, with senior investment leaders emphasising the importance of sustainable investment for value creation, long-term performance and risk management. A large majority (80%) of signatories, managing a combined US$82.7 trillion in assets, recognise climate-related risks and opportunities, and 65% take action on sustainability outcomes, i.e., making use of their own levers/tools to work towards global sustainability goals and thresholds, including through capital allocation and stewardship. Nearly half view financial materiality as central to their investment case for responsible investing. Asset owners, in particular, show greater ambition and action than investment managers, prioritising collaborative stewardship (48%), aligning with the Paris Agreement (45%), and more often using public engagement and climate scenario analysis (58%) as tools in their strategies. These differences are shaped by factors such as organisational structures, regulatory demands and differing levels of ambition.
- Climate-related portfolio risks are a top priority: An increasing number of investors are actively addressing climate-related risks and opportunities, with climate remaining a top priority for senior leaders in responsible capital allocation and stewardship. Stewardship practices—such as engagement and proxy voting—are key tools for fulfilling climate commitments, evidenced by widespread adoption of environmental voting policies and strong support for initiatives like Climate Action 100+. Investors are also aligning their capital allocation strategies with climate goals through methods such as investment exclusions, green bond investments and transition finance strategies.
- Human rights are increasingly seen as material: Social issues are becoming a higher priority within responsible investment, with a growing number of investors incorporating them into their policies—64% now have specific guidelines on human rights and nearly a third of signatories are conducting human rights due diligence. Governance and oversight mechanisms are still evolving: 58% have senior-level oversight of human rights policy commitments, 39% report on human rights, and 40% have publicly available guidelines on human rights. Just 8% percent of signatories, with combined AUM of US$13.6 trillion, take action on all pillars of the UN Guiding Principles on Business and Human Rights (UNGPs) and only 11% are enabling access to remedy for harms they are connected to. Most signatories that enable access to remedy do so indirectly, using their influence to encourage investee companies to provide remedies for people affected by human rights harms linked to the investors' activities. At the same time, most of the identified action areas saw a small bump in the number of signatories taking action since the 2023 reporting cycle. Leading investors are aligning their practices with the UNGPs, taking tangible actions such as enabling access to remedy. According to PRI, this signals a shift toward more structured and accountable approaches to social responsibility.
