PFZW, the pension fund for healthcare workers, has sold most of its investments in oil and gas companies. The pension fund reported on Thursday that it had held discussions with Shell, BP, TotalEnergies and 307 other companies for two years about their climate policy. It emerged that “those companies have taken no or insufficient steps in the transition to a cleaner energy mix.” According to PFZW, the transition to renewable energy is “not happening nearly fast enough”. In total, this would involve investments worth 2.8 billion euros.
PFZW, which manages a total of 238 billion euros, says it wants to invest 2 billion euros in companies that focus on the energy transition over the next two years. The fund has set itself the goal of investing 15 percent of its managed money in companies that are committed to combating climate change by 2030. Approximately 2.9 million people are affiliated with PFZW, the majority of whom work in healthcare. It is the second largest pension fund in the Netherlands.
There are seven oil and gas companies in which PFZW continues to invest (Cosan SA, Galp Energia, Granuul Invest, Neste Oyj, OMV AG, Raízen SA and Worley Limited). According to the fund, these are “forerunners in the energy sector” who are “convincingly” committed to renewable energy. “The seven companies in which we continue to invest are the only ones that show that a transition is possible. At the same time, it is disappointing that there are only seven. We encourage the largest players in the fossil sector to also accelerate the transition to a cleaner energy mix,” said PFZW CEO Joanne Kellerman.
PFZW has been criticized in recent years for investing in oil and gas companies. From end of 2021 Extinction Rebellion organized protests at the PFZW office in Zeist, among other things. The action group demanded that the pension fund stop its billions in investments in the fossil industry.
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