By Ron Bousso
LONDON (Reuters) -A Dutch pension fund leading climate talks with Shell has divested its holdings in Europe’s top oil and gas companies, saying they are not moving fast enough to reduce emissions.
PFZW, which managed about 238 billion euros ($256 billion) at the end of 2023, said it had sold its holdings in 310 oil and gas companies – worth around 2.8 billion euros – after a two-year engagement programme.
Organizations
The companies include Shell, BP and TotalEnergies, which have set out plans to become net zero carbon emitters by 2050 as well as various short and medium-term decarbonisation targets.
“During this period, dialogue with oil and gas companies was significantly intensified to encourage them to produce verifiable transition plans that support the goal of the Paris Climate Agreement,” PFZW said.
“Most of our fossil fuel investments have now been sold off, as these companies have made insufficient steps in the transition to a cleaner energy mix.”
PFZW, through its asset management division PGGM, will also step down as one of two pension funds leading climate negotiations with Shell since 2022 on behalf of the Climate Action 100+ (CA100+) investor group comprising $68 trillion in assets, a spokesperson said.
Last year The Church of England Pensions Board, which had also led climate talks with Shell, divested its holdings in the oil company over its climate stance.
In response, Shell said: “We appreciate societal perceptions in the Netherlands, but this decision has no benefit to the climate. It will not change actual use of energy and continues to portray an incorrect understanding of the needed changes to today’s energy system.”
Shell said it invested $5.6 billion in 2023 in low carbon and renewable business, around 23% of its total annual spending. That compared with $4.3 billion, or 17%, a year earlier.
TotalEnergies said in response that “we believe exclusions only transfer shareholding to other investors that might be less ambitious than PGGM and PFZW in terms of climate transition.”
TotalEnergies said it aimed to become one of the world’s top five wind and solar producers by 2030.
“Developing these renewable activities is only possible thanks to the cash flows generated by our oil and gas activities,” it added.
BP said it “aims to transition from an international oil company to an integrated energy company, investing in today’s oil and gas system and building out tomorrow’s – lower carbon and higher margin. We are confident in our strategy. And we are clear what we need to deliver our 2025 targets.”
PFZW will continue to invest in seven companies in the sector – Cosan, Galp Energia, Granuul Invest, Neste, OMV, Raízen and Worley.
($1 = 0.9280 euros)
(Reporting by Ron Bousso and America Hernandez. Editing by Mark Potter and David Goodman)
