Supporting the green transition

When we invest your pension savings, we take climate-related factors into consideration. We focus on contributing to the transition to a climate-friendly society through our investments, by exercising active ownership and by cooperating with other investors – all of which supports our goal of future-proofing your pension investments and helping to achieve to global climate targets.

Our ambition is to invest DKK 100 billion in the green transition towards 2030.

Our investments must be climate neutral by 2050.

We take climate-related issues into consideration when we select investments, and we push companies in a green direction.

We report on the CO2 emissions from our investments.

DKK 100 billion in the green transition

Our objective is to invest DKK 100 billion in the green transition towards 2030. It is investments in companies, funds and projects that will help to achieve global climate goals.

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Pushing companies in a green direction

At Danica Pension, we are in dialogue with companies and we vote at their general meetings. We do this with a view to influencing these companies to not only increase openness about their work with climate-related matters but to also commit to working with the green transition and reduce their CO2 emissions so that they can contribute to the climate targets of the Paris Agreement for a global temperature increase of a maximum of 1.5°. This is also an important tool for us to achieve our own objective of having a net-zero investment portfolio by 2050. We also work with other investors to influence companies to become more climate friendly, for example through our participation in the Climate Action 100+ investor initiative. Read more about our active ownership activities here.

We exclude companies that exhbit harmful climate behaviour

In some cases, we do not believe that active ownership is sufficient to enable us to push companies in a green direction. For this reasion, we do not invest in companies that derive a significant part of their profit from coal and tar sand. Similarly, we do not invest in a number of companies that behave in ways that are harmful to the climate and that contribute significantly to climate change. Excluded companies include companies that fight against stricter climate legislation or climate financing and companies that embark on new projects in the fields of fossil fuels or the deforestation of rainforests.

Read more here

Carbon-neutral investments in 2050

Our ambition is to have only carbon-neutral investments by 2050. We have committed ourselves to this as a member of the global investor initiative Net-zero Asset Owner Alliance, which supports our efforts to invest in line with the Paris Agreement’s target of limiting global temperature rise to a maximum of 1.5°.

We are currently setting partial targets for how much CO2 investment shall be permitted to emit in the years up until 2050, and this will ensure that we can implement the most effective climate measures and achieve our ambition.

Low CO2 emissions from investments

In 2020, for the first time, we published a CO2 report showing the carbon footprint of equity and corporate bond investments. The report shows that investments account for 33 tonnes of CO2 per DKK million invested, which is 21% less CO2 than a combined global benchmark for equities and corporate bonds.

Read the CO2 report

How do we measure CO2 emissions?

We measure CO2 emissions on the basis of the companies’ different areas of activity. These areas of activity are referred to as ‘scopes’.

  • Scope 1

    This covers the CO2 that companies emit through their own facilities, including buildings, production facilities or company vehicles.

  • Scope 2

    This covers the indirect CO2 emissions from the energy used by companies for operations and production – for example, electric and district eating.

  • Scope 3

    This covers other indirect CO2 emissions that are not covered by scope 2.

    Scope 3 includes the climate impact of e.g. the company’s products and services and the distribution and use of the company’ products. In many cases, the calculation of scope 3 is based on estimates that tke iunto account the company’s size, its business activities or the sector average. A large part of the companies’ CO2 emissions are produced outside the companies’ own activities.

    Examples of CO2 emissions within scope 3:

    • assignment and distribution of raw materials
    • assignment and distribution of products
    • waste generated by production
    • work-related travel
    • employee travel between their home and work
    • resource consumption of the products
    • disposal of waste

CO2 report: a tool for our work with climate

The CO2 report provides us with a greater understanding of the risks and opportunities related to climate conditions and the green transition. New market trends, demand for green solutions, tighter climate controls and political climate ambitions will affect the business models of all companies. This will have particularly significant financial implications for companies that emmit high levels of CO2 emissions and will also affect the future growth potential of such companies.

  • The CO2report gives us an overview of the total carbon emissions of investments. It is a tool that we use as part of our ambition to reduce the carbon footprint of investments. We can do this through active ownership, divestment of investments that have high levels of CO2 emissions, or by increasing investments in companies that support the green transition.

    When we use the tools, our primary point of reference is our goal to generate attractive and long-term returns for our customers and our desire to contribute to the green transition. To make a real difference, we believe that an open and nuanced dialogue with companies and other stakeholders is the way to achieve a greener society.