Dutch pension fund ABP has announced it has reached its target to reduce its CO2 footprint by 40 per cent by 2025 four years early.

The pension fund revealed that in 2021 it succeeded in reducing its CO2 by 48.7 per cent compared to 2015, when the target was first set.

ABP bettered its target partially through the tightening of its inclusion policy, which means it has sold its investments in several CO2-intensive companies, and increasing its focus on companies that have smaller CO2 emissions than other companies in their sector.

Now that the 40 per cent target has been achieved, ABP stated that it is “time for new ambitions”.

ABP file holder sustainable and responsible investment, Mart Keuning, commented: “We still see that the CO2 emissions are increasing worldwide. That has to change. At ABP, we are now going to focus on large-scale consumers of fossil fuels. There we can make an impact to CO2 emissions.

“A lot of CO2 emissions come, for example, from energy production, but also from transport such as the automotive sector and transport companies. There are many opportunities there to reduce the CO2 footprint further reduce.

“In addition, it is important that we increase our investments in affordable and sustainable energy. At the end of 2021, we had invested €18.5bn in this and we are going to increase this as well."

ABP has also announced that it is working on bringing the CO2 footprint into clearer view on other categories of investment, such as corporate bonds, real estate and private equity.

It is also currently working with its administrator, APG, on its new climate policy, which will be announced later this year.

APG climate data analyst, Lucas Wouters, added: “This is also something that the financial sector wants to achieve together. In the case of corporate bonds, this CO2 footprint already pretty clear. In private equity, we still have to make do with models based on calculations.

“It is still an approximation, but the number is becoming more and more precise. For real estate, it is already very well recorded. If the footprint of each category is clear, then we can set concrete goals to reduce it. In short, there is still plenty to do."

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