Danish pension fund manager PKA has left the UN-convened Net-Zero Asset Owner Alliance (NZAOA), saying it now wanted to concentrate on its membership of the Institutional Investors Group on Climate Change (IIGCC) and its initiative, instead of both climate projects.
A spokesman for the DKK440bn (€59bn) Danish pensions manager said: “We have decided to withdraw from the NZAOA to focus on IIGCC and its Paris Aligned Asset Owners initiative, thereby maximising the impact of our resources and collective efforts in the areas of climate and biodiversity.”
PKA, which runs four labour-market pension funds, had been a member of multiple initiatives to support a broader focus on climate action among investors, he said.
“However, as climate action and reporting are scaling up we have chosen to dedicate our efforts to IIGCC, where we have been a prominent member for years and where we wish to continue playing a leading role,” the spokesman said.
“Our ambitions and targets in the area of climate action and CO2-reduction remain the same,” he said.
In the summer of 2023, the Church of England Pensions Board (CEPB) confirmed that it had left the NZAOA, although the UK pensions institution said it would remain committed to achieving its net-zero target and would still share NZAO’s objectives.
CEPB explained the decision to leave by saying that its size meant it needed to have a clear focus on one initiative.
Formed five years ago under the auspices of the UN, NZAOA describes itself as “a member-led initiative of institutional investors committed to transitioning their investment portfolios to net zero GHG emissions by 2050 – consistent with a maximum temperature rise of 1.5°C”.
The CEPB was the third member to leave the alliance, following Australian construction industry pension fund Cbus in September 2022, and German insurance company HanseMerkur the following May, according to the NZAOA website.
A spokesman for NZAOA – one of the eight sector-specific climate alliances that are part of the Glasgow Financial Alliance for Net Zero (GFANZ) – told IPE that after PKA’s departure, the initiative had 88 members, and added that the organisation did not comment on individual members.
Last year, a mass exit from the Net Zero Insurance Alliance (NZIA) – another GFANZ group — raised questions about the future of NZAOA and the other six GFANZ initiatives, along with that of the parent itself.
The departure of the insurance companies from the group followed letters they received from Attorneys General from 20 US states raising concerns about the legality of their shared net-zero commitments.
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