ABP president named top climate leader in Time magazine

US magazine Time has included Harmen van Wijnen, board chair of ABP, in its list of one hundred influential climate leaders. He is the first ever pension executive or investor included in the list, which saw its first edition published last year.

Time selected 100 people who have achieved “measurable and scalable results” in making an impact on climate change. According to Time, van Wijnen owes his selection in the Time100 Climate 2024 to ABP’s decision to divest from fossil fuels, combined with the pension fund’s pledge to exclude companies that are responsible for climate change and cannot or will not change this.

In a post on Linkedin, van Wijnen, whom Time sees as a ‘catalyst’ because of his position as president of Europe’s largest pension fund, said he was “extremely honoured” with his place on the list of climate leaders.

“I find myself in the company of Bill Gates, the president of Mexico and the mayor of London, among others,” van Wijnen added.

The UK’s Prince Harry is also on the list, as founder of the non-profit organisation Travalyst, which has developed a model that allows air travellers to see how much CO₂ emissions their air travel generates. As is the king of Bhutan, which was the first country to achieve carbon-neutral status.

Van Wijnen, who attended the climate conference in Baku last week, dedicated his inclusion in the list to ABP’s 3 million participants, who have given their pension fund the support it needs to pursue an ambitious climate policy.

“By including me in the Time100 Climate leaders as the chairman of ABP’s board, Time magazine is in fact naming 3 million pension fund participants as the most influential climate leaders,” van Wijnen added.

No investors

Van Wijnen is the only pension fund executive on the list, which features no other investors at all. This is remarkable, as the energy transition is to be financed largely by the private sector.

Time’s list of climate influencers is heavy with politicians and people connected to NGOs and multilateral institutions such as the World Bank and the United Nations.

The corporate world is, however, also well-represented: the chief executive officers of Lego and Orsted, among others, made the list, as did their counterparts at car manufacturers Volvo, Hyundai and BYD. The one thing these three carmakers have in common is that they are making sizeable investments in the development of electric cars.

This article was first published on Pensioen Pro, IPE’s Dutch sister publication.