Denmark’s pension and insurance lobby has set out proposals to the country’s government and parliament on a new climate initiative, calling for a climate fund to be established, as well as a national climate adaptation plan.
Insurance and Pension Denmark (IPD) listed 13 concrete proposals – such as ensuring the EU’s upcoming Solvency II regulation does not inhibit green investments – in the 40-page document.
Kent Damsgaard, chief executive officer of IPD, said: “We have two basic tasks in relation to the climate. The first is to combat climate change – and the second is to adapt to the drastic changes that are unfortunately already a reality.
“The insurance and pension companies are deeply committed to both and provide solutions, but there is a huge potential to do more,” he said.
The lobby group is proposing a state budget-financed climate fund be established to secure funding for climate adaptation projects, as well as a national action plan for climate adaptation.
Among the other recommendations, IPD also proposed that a task force be set up to promote green exports under the leadership of Export Credit Agency (EKF) with the participation of the Export Council.
Another proposal is that the Danish central bank creates a model for green government bonds meeting the requirements set out in the EU Green Bond Standard, and that the same standards are applied to green corporate bonds.
IPD said Denmark should establish an economic roadmap for the green transition, and that “massive investments” in new technologies were required in order to utilise renewable energy for the transport and agriculture sectors, for example.
“The investments are so large that the public coffers are far from able to take on that task alone,” he said.
Pension companies were ready to invest billions in the green transition, but were lacking a long-term, clear roadmap, Damsgaard said.
“Climate change has already had some serious consequences, as we also saw with our neighbours in Germany this summer,” he said.
Launching the proposals, IPD also pushed for the same ambitious requirements to apply to the public sector as the private sector.
“Particularly in societies such as Denmark with a large public sector […] it is also absolutely crucial that we also get the entire public sector restructured, so that, for example, public buildings also get more involved in the climate fight,” Damsgaard said.
Last week, IPD announced it had adopted a set of common climate reporting rules for the sector, as part of the ongoing work in the Nordic country to meet its goal of reducing greenhouse gas emissions by 70% by 2030 in relation to 1990 levels.
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