Three Danish pension funds become Climate Action 100+ signatories
Written by Sunniva Kolostyak
01/03/2019
The Danish pension provider Samension and pension funds Arkitekternes Pensionskasse and Pensionskassen for Jordbrugsakademikere & Dyrlæger have joined the global investor initiative Climate Action 100+.
The initiative, which aims to ensure that the world’s biggest greenhouse gas emitters take action to limit climate change, has now reached more than 320 members.
Sampension CEO Hasse Jørgensen said in a statement: “It aligns nicely with our other activities in the area, in 2018 we have among other things measured the carbon footprint of our equity portfolio for the first time. Overall, we have over the past years had an increased focus on efforts to create more transparency in the investment markets when it comes to climate risks.”
Its latest achievement is an agreement with the mining company Glencore, one of the largest producers of thermal coal in the world, which in February agreed to adapt its business and investments to the Paris Agreement and keep global warming under two degrees.
The signature means Glencore will not increase the current production of coal and to increase investments in solutions that promote restructuring the energy sector.
Climate Action 100+ has also reached arrangements with BP and Shell to adapt to the Paris Agreement. In total, signatories manage more than $32trn in assets.
Principle for Responsible Investment (PRI) Asia Investor Group on Climate Change (AIGCC), Ceres, Investor Group on Climate Changes (IGCC) and Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) are the five organisations who launched the initiative in 2017.
“Climate change is widely recognised as one of the most pressing challenges facing the world and the global economy. The consequences of climate change are very likely to be significant. This creates a number of risks to the companies, but also opportunities to move to a low-emission economy,” Jørgensen said.
“In the Sampension community, we assess the companies in the investment portfolio among other things on the basis of how susceptible they are to measures against emission of greenhouse gases and on how they contribute to solving the climate challenges. In 2018 we had 14 critical dialogues within that area.”
