Danish pension company, Lærernes Pension, has committed to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 and to work to influence companies to reduce their carbon footprints.

The company, which provides pensions for teachers in Denmark, has expanded its climate strategy to set a goal that its total investment portfolio will have net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 at the latest.

To help it achieve this aim, it has decided to follow the Net Zero Investor Framework.

This sets the framework for how Lærernes Pension will work with climate-related factors in its future investments, and it is setting sub-goals for the year 2030 at the latest.

Lærernes Pension has also committed to start working with the climate-related impact on the 166 companies with the highest CO2 emissions.

This means that it will support the work to influence companies to change and reduce their CO2 footprint, in accordance with the goals of the Paris Agreement.

The pension company has also joined Climate Action 100+, the international investor collaboration that aims to influence companies with the largest CO2 emissions.

“It can be difficult to assess when an investment is green,” Lærernes Pension stated.

“For a number of years, we have made some investments that we really believe are good in terms of both returns and the climate, but until now there have been no common criteria for when an investment is environmentally sustainable.

“Therefore, we also try to be transparent about what the criteria have been when we invest.

“However, a new European standard is on the way (the EU taxonomy) that defines when economic activities can be called environmentally sustainable.

“The bar is set high in the new standard, to give companies an incentive to constantly become better and more climate friendly.”

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