Swedish pension fund AP7 has blacklisted a further three companies due to the firms not meeting its responsible investment criteria.

One company was also removed from the pension fund’s blacklist, bringing the total number of firms blacklisted and excluded from the fund’s investment universe to 104.

One company, Eaton Corporation (Ireland) was blacklisted over its involvement in nuclear weapons, while China Coal Energy Co (China) and GD Power Development Co (China) were blacklisted for not acting in line with the Paris Agreement through large-scale operations in the coal industry without credible climate change plans.

Renault SA was removed from the blacklist as there was no verified information about ongoing norm violations from the company.

AP7 revises its blacklist twice a year, in June and December, and it aims to use blacklisting as a pressure tool to get companies to move in a more sustainable direction.

The blacklisting is therefore an influence tool in collaboration with other influence tools, such as company dialogues and voting at general meetings.

AP7 invests in companies that “acceptably comply” with the requirements of the international conventions that Sweden has signed and that are expressed in the UN Global Compact's 10 principles, which describe companies' responsibility for human rights, working conditions, the environment and anti-corruption.

The pension fund also blacklists companies that participate in the development and production of nuclear weapons.

“Since December 2016, the Paris Agreement to the UN Climate Convention is one of the norms on which the analysis is based,” AP7 said.

“The climate blacklisting is continuously developed in line with the IEA's roadmap towards net-zero climate emissions by 2050.”

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