The Danish pension and insurance sectors have adopted common and clear measurements for CO2 emissions following the creation of the government’s climate partnerships, Insurance and Pension Denmark has revealed.

At the end of 2019, the Danish government set up 13 climate partnerships as a way to involve the country’s business community in the green transition. The country has a goal of reducing CO2 emissions by 70 per cent by 2030.

The financial sector’s climate partnership is led by PensionDanmark CEO, Torben Möger Pedersen, who said it is “absolutely crucial” to achieve the climate ambitions set by the government. The common measurements cover areas such as investment assets, damage prevention, active ownership and even the use of paper in everyday life.

“Since we submitted our recommendations to the government, our industry has worked purposefully to prepare an industry recommendation that can help create transparency about our goals for customers' climate footprint, our involvement with customers and projects, sustainability in our business models and reduction of own emissions,” Möger Pedersen said.

He said that going forward, industry reporting must help to strengthen the credibility and create comparability across companies. He said companies must set goals and monitor the reduction of customers’ CO2 footprints in investments, and active ownership must help to bring focus on climate adaptation.

“In addition, efforts to integrate sustainability must be strengthened throughout the industry,” he said.

“It is a big task when our companies, among other things, must calculate the total CO2 emissions from the total portfolio of investment assets and, for example, report on the sustainability of real estate investments,” Insurance and Pension Denmark CEO, Kent Damsgaard, said, but added that the industry is committed to achieving the goal of reducing CO2 emissions.

“We must all contribute to combating global climate change, and we are now at the forefront as an industry and creating transparency about our climate pressures. We are the country's largest investors, and that naturally obliges us, and therefore we have prepared an industry recommendation that looks at both our daily paper consumption and whether we drive low-emission cars,” he said.

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