Pensioenfonds Zorg en Welzijn (PFZW) has announced it will divest from companies with high carbon dioxide emissions.

The fund, which is one the biggest in Europe, is a compulsory collective pension scheme for the care and welfare sector. It has €161bn of assets under management.

It said that it will divest from companies that have high carbon dioxide emissions but will also engage in a dialogue with those companies to try to get them to reduce their emissions. It said if the companies do not respond to their request they will divest and if they do then the world will have less Co2 emissions.

The fund said it would divest completely from coal-related companies by 2020, while investments in fossil fuel companies will be reduced by 30 per cent.

"This will take place in four annual steps and result in investments being withdrawn from approximately 250 companies" focused in the energy, utilities and materials sectors,” the fund said in a statement.

Earlier this week it was revealed that fossil fuels are costing another Dutch pension fund, ABP, billions of euros.

New analysis from Corporate Knights, 350.org and South Pole Group assessed the investments of 14 funds, including ABP, and determined the total scale of losses over the past three years exceeded €20.5bn.

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