The Investor Action on Antimicrobial Resistance initiative, supported by 80 investors representing $13 trillion in assets, urged policymakers to take action against the “escalating AMR crisis,” the IAAMR said in a statement.
Global economic costs associated with antimicrobial resistance are likely to reach $100 trillion and lead to a 3.8% decrease in global gross domestic product by 2050, according to the IAAMR. The statement also said AMR has become “a systemic risk” on the same level as climate change and biodiversity loss.
Signatory institutional investors include the £38 billion ($48 billion) Brunel Pension Partnership, Bristol, England; £3.5 billion Church of England Pensions Board, London; Council on Ethics for Swedish National Pension Funds; £78 billion Universities Superannuation Scheme, London; and HESTA, the Melbourne-based superannuation fund with A$83 billion ($54.5 billion) in assets. The IAAMR statement was also supported by Sally Davis, the U.K. government’s special envoy on AMR.
The IAAMR released its statement prior to the second U.N. General Assembly High-Level Meeting on Antimicrobial Resistance, that will take place in New York in September.
Antimicrobial resistance is a crisis that could also result in annual costs of $412 billion in healthcare treatment and $443 billion in productivity losses by 2035, according to the IAAMR. AMR was also estimated to have killed more people than HIV/AIDS and malaria combined in 2019.
Jeremy Coller, managing partner and CIO of Coller Capital and chair of the $70 trillion Farm Animal Investment Risk and Return initiative, or FAIRR, and a founding partner of the IAAMR, said: “An estimated 80% of antibiotics are administered to livestock rather than people in the U.S. alone. Investors recognize that AMR is not only a threat to the health of our people and planet, but to the financial well-being of those who rely on investment returns to fund their retirements.”
The IAAMR statement also encouraged policymakers to support the establishment of an independent panel, modeled on the International Panel on Climate Change, to provide policymakers with regular scientific assessments on AMR.
The IAAMR’s asset management partners also include Aviva Investors, Coller Capital, Legal & General Investment Management and Mirova.
