Pension funds are still far from being as sustainable as hoped

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Oil spills, land expropriation, environmental pollution: the pension covenant drawn up in 2018 begins with an extensive list of reasons for which the initiative is on earth. The covenant has now expired and there is hardly any improvement in these problems, an independent committee has concluded. That reports Trouw.

The seventy pension funds that signed the agreement represent EUR 1,600 billion in investments. This amounts to almost the entire Dutch pension assets. That large amount of money is invested in all kinds of different companies around the world; from a meat producer in Brazil to a palm oil plantation in Indonesia.

Duty of care

The pension funds wanted to do something about the abuses at these companies. After all, their investments can cause or exacerbate the problems. In the covenant, the pension funds agreed on a kind of duty of care. They would check whether the companies they invest in cause damage to people or the environment.

In the most recent evaluation, an independent committee found that only a minority (20 percent) of the funds have their policies in order. And that while that goal had to be achieved after just two years.

Extinction Rebellion is campaigning at Pensioenfonds ABP on the Amsterdam Zuidas.  The activists demanded that Pensioenfonds ABP stop investing in the oil, gas and coal companies.
Extinction Rebellion is campaigning at Pensioenfonds ABP on the Amsterdam Zuidas. The activists demanded that Pensioenfonds ABP stop investing in the oil, gas and coal companies. (ANP / Nico Garstman)

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