AMSTERDAM (Reuters) – ABP, the largest Dutch pension fund with around 500 billion euros ($530 billion) in assets, expects to cut a large number of companies from its portfolio as it aims to limit investments to those that make a real effort to become climate neutral.
The new policy could cut the number of companies in ABP’s portfolio in half, investment director Dominique Dijkhuis told Dutch financial daily FD in an interview published on Friday.
“We need to take a hard look at which companies fit our new vision. Companies that can’t or don’t want to contribute to the transition are too risky for us,” Dijkhuis said.
“We will invest in fewer companies and we will take bigger stakes in them.”
Dijkhuis did not specify which companies would no longer be eligible for ABP, nor how long the overhaul would take.
The fund had already said last year it would divest 15 billion euros of fossil fuel investments, in a major turnaround.
Only months before, it had said exiting fossil fuel investments would “not be the solution” to global warming.
Dijkhuis said ABP would demand that companies commit to be climate neutral by 2050, and would also set goals along the way that would become stricter with the years.
The financial sector will not be excluded from this policy, as it will have to target loans to sustainable investments, Dijkhuis added.
ABP’s own investments will also be geared towards sustainable projects, as the fund looks to directly invest in the building of offshore wind farms.
($1 = 0.9408 euros)
(Reporting by Bart Meijer; Editing by Mark Potter)
