Dutch pension fund PME is selling €286m of fossil fuel investments after an investigation by Pointer found that it still had fossil fuel companies in its portfolio, despite PME saying it had sold all fossil fuel investments in 2021.

The divestment will take place across 29 companies, with €230m from coal investments and €56m from oil extraction investments.

Pointer compared fossil fuel stocks and bonds from 10 major pension funds to a list of coal companies, the Global Coal Exit List from the NGO Urgewald.

It found that PGB was the fund with the most fossil fuel investments, with €4,689 per members, while ABP (€4,130 per members) and BpfBouw (€3,371 per members) were in second and third place respectively.

PME was in sixth place with €2,427 per member, while in 2018 it was one of the first Dutch pension funds to announce it would be coal-free.

Pointer found that PME invested, among others, in Glencore, the third largest coal producer in the world.

ABP has said that it expects to have sold the majority of its fossil fuel investments in the first quarter of 2023.

“PME is surprised by the findings, but should have known,” Pointer stated. “PME relies on databases such as those of the financial service provider Bloomberg.

“A company only counts as a coal producer if it derives more than 50 per cent of its turnover from coal. Because of this so-called sector classification, huge mining companies such as Glencore, which derives 9 per cent of its turnover from coal, can slip through and not be excluded.

“PME's internal policy only excludes coal companies that produce coal for the majority of their operations or derive more than 30 per cent of their electricity from coal. But that is not what the fund promised at the time in Dagblad Trouw and on their exclusion page.”

Pointer added that the pension fund also still invests around €420m in 21 companies active in oil and gas extraction and distribution.

PME will exclude all remaining oil and gas producers from its portfolio “as soon as possible”.

Commenting, PME stated: “In our response to Pointer's findings, we can be brief: This should not have happened and we are disappointed. We therefore appreciate that Pointer has pointed this out to us and will take immediate action.

“All producers of coal, oil and gas that come to light, no matter how small the turnover from this production, will be excluded as soon as possible. This means that we say goodbye to Glencore, BHP Billiton and Hindalco, among others.

“In addition, we have decided to use public lists, including the list of the NGO Urgewald, as a supplementary source of information from now on.

“This gives us a more complete picture of the companies in our investment portfolio. This brings us one step closer to our goal of a sustainable investment portfolio.”

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