The Danish government and pension sector representatives have joined forces to support an international campaign to get more investment into assets supporting the green transition.

Danish pension fund PKA’s chief executive Peter Damgaard Jensen – who is also chair of the Institutional Investor Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) – is to take a leading role in the new initiative, dubbed the Climate Investment Coalition.

The coalition is also supported by the IIGCC, World Climate, and Denmark’s Ministry of Climate and Energy.

It was first launched at the UN Climate Summit in New York in September with the intention of facilitating the investment of DKK250bn (€33.5bn) in green transition projects and assets by 2030.

At the COP25 summit in Madrid this month, Damgaard Jensen announced that the coalition was expanding its ambitions to mobilise more investors to back sustainable climate projects.

“If we, as a global community, are to achieve the green transition goal, it will require huge investments in the climate and much of the money will have to come from the private sector,” Damgaard Jensen said.

“The Danish pension sector has been at the forefront with our DKK350bn commitment to green investments. We can use that as leverage to mobilise even larger sums from some of the world’s largest investors.”

A conference dedicated to the Climate Investment Coalition is to be hosted at the Climate Investment Summit in Copenhagen in May.

However, according a statement on PKA’s website the first major milestone for the coalition will be the COP26 summit in Glasgow in 2020, where it expects to announce commitments from other investors.

Several large investors have already shown interest in the coalition, according to Damgaard Jensen.

He said: “By bringing forces together across public and private sectors in Denmark, we can speak with an even stronger voice internationally, and we can show that in Denmark the climate fight is a joint project. I look forward to working with the climate minister to show investors from all over the world what we can do in this area in Denmark.

“Both at the UN Climate Summit in New York in September and now here at COP25 in Madrid, we have received several positive announcements from very large investors in both the US and Europe.

“There is momentum around the climate agenda right now from both the political and private sectors. We must use this to bring even more people to the table.”

Share Story: