Banks| Policies| Dodgy Deals| Campaigns
About us| Blog| Publications| Successes| Contact us| Donate
About BankTrack
Visit us
Organisation
Our team
Our board
Guiding principles
Team up with us
Our annual reports
Funding and finances
History
BankTrack in the media
Our privacy policy
Donate
2022-06-02 00:00:00
GFANZ must tighten the screw on fossil fuel expansion
2022-05-19 00:00:00
BNP Paribas and Société Générale: stop financing climate destruction and human rights abuses
2022-05-04 00:00:00
Barclays is big on beef and burning
2022-05-04 00:00:00
Standard Chartered’s 2022 AGM dominated by shareholder alarm over fossil financing
2022-05-20 15:14:47
Seven financiers abandon TotalEnergies' EACOP pipeline in a week
2021-12-16 13:33:02
Cambo oil field "paused" following pressure on Shell & banks
2021-12-16 13:04:42
Equator Principles improve transparency after BankTrack shows the way
2021-11-02 11:03:26
ANZ launches human rights grievance mechanism in a first for the global banking sector
Connect
2022-04-05 00:00:00
The BankTrack Human Rights Benchmark Asia
2022-03-30 00:00:00
Banking on Climate Chaos 2022
2022-03-08 00:00:00
BankTrack Annual Report 2021
2022-03-03 00:00:00
Locked out of a Just Transition: fossil fuel financing in Africa
2021-12-14 00:00:00
Actions speak louder: Assessing bank responses to human rights violations
2021-10-26 00:00:00
Equator Compliant Climate Destruction: How banks finance fossil fuels under the Equator Principles
See all publications
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Home › News
Dutch pension funds, insurers and banks not yet Paris-proof
The climate plans of the Dutch financial sector are totally insufficient to achieve the goals of the Paris Climate Agreement and they do not reflect the seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis. This is evident from new research by the Fair Finance Guide Netherlands
Start
Banks

By: Fair Finance Guide Netherlands
2021-09-30
Amsterdam

Contact:

Lynda Belaïdi, Press Officer Milieudefensie, +31 (0)6 386 14 206


Share this page:

One out of three Dutch financial institutions has an explicit goal to align loans and investments with 1.5 degrees.. Photo: De Eerlijke Geldwijzer
Go to:
Start
Related Banks

Major pension funds such as ABP and PFZW and insurers such as Aegon, Allianz and Nationale Nederlanden have not set specific targets for phasing out all their investments in fossil fuels. Major banks such as Rabobank and ABN Amro do not have a policy of aligning all their loans and investments with the goal of limiting global warming to 1.5°C. The Fair Finance Guide Netherlands wants pension funds, insurers and banks to operate fully in line with the Paris Climate Agreement and calls for the introduction of a legal climate obligation for financial institutions.

Voluntary approach doesn't work
"The latest report from the UN climate panel is unambiguous: it is code red for humanity," says Donald Pols, director of Milieudefensie and spokesperson for the Fair Finance Guide Netherlands. “We can prevent dangerous climate change, but only if everyone participates, including pension funds, insurers and banks. Our case study shows that the voluntary approach taken by the financial sector is not working.”

No policy for 1.5°C and phasing out fossils
The climate policies of 27 financial institutions active in the Netherlands has been assessed by research agency Profundo on behalf of the Fair Finance Guide Netherlands. The results are alarming. Only one out of three financial institutions has an explicit goal to align loans and investments with scenarios that limit global temperature rise to 1.5°C. Only one out of nine has completely ceased/phased out fuel financing.

Frontrunners and laggards
The research scores the financial institutions assessed, with De Volksbank (score 9), Triodos, Bunq and insurer Athora Nederland (score 8) proving that good climate policy is possible. However, many underperformed such as pension giants ABP (score 5) and PFZW (score 4), insurers Aegon (score 3), NN and Achmea (score 5) and the large banks Rabobank (score 5) and ABN Amro (score 5). Indeed, pension funds and insurers perform worse than the banks. While the catering pension fund (horecapensioenfonds) and the pension fund for the metal electronics (PME) recently decided to get their investments out of coal, oil and gas, the pension giants ABP and PFZW are still pumping billions into the fossil fuel industry.

Taking responsibility
To prevent runaway climate change, the billion-dollar flow of funds to the fossil fuel industry must be rapidly diverted to climate solutions. That is one of the main goals of the Paris Climate Agreement. "In May the court ruled that oil and -gas company Shell has a responsibility to drastically reduce its CO2 emissions," says Pols. "Banks, insurers and pension funds also have such a responsibility, and they must reduce the CO2 emissions that they finance quickly, to drastically lower it."

Legal Climate obligation
In recent years, Dutch financial institutions have made mutual voluntary agreements to reduce their contribution to the climate crisis. Some institutions are actively doing this, but many others continue to postpone the necessary change of course, according to the research of the Fair Finance Guide Netherlands. The Finance Guide Netherlands coalition calls on the government to introduce a climate obligation for financial institutions. This means that pension funds, insurers and banks are legally obliged to implement policies to make their portfolios climate-proof and to limit global warming to 1.5°C.

This report of the Fair Finance Guide Netherlands is part of a two-part study. The second part compares the financing of fossil and renewable energy by Dutch financial institutions and will be published in October.

Go to:
Start
Related Banks

Related banks

ABN AMRO Netherlands

active

ASN Bank Netherlands

active

De Volksbank Netherlands

active

ING Netherlands

active

NIBC Netherlands

active

Rabobank Netherlands

active

Triodos Bank Netherlands

active
Browse
Home
Banks
Policies
Dodgy Deals
Campaigns
About
About BankTrack
Donate
Contact BankTrack
Publications
Victories
Follow Us
News
BankTrack blog
Facebook
Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Twitter Fossil Banks No Thanks Instagram
Affiliate Websites
Fossil Banks No Thanks
StopEACOP
Forests & Finance
Banks & Biodiversity
Drop JBS
Bank of Coal
Don't Buy into Occupation
Vismarkt 15
6511 VJ Nijmegen
The Netherlands

Tel: +31 24 324 9220
Contact@banktrack.org
©2016 BankTrack                Webdesign by BankTrack and EASYmind
BankTrack is a registered charity in the Netherlands (ANBI) - RSIN 813874658
Find our privacy policy here

Stay up to date

Sign up now for all BankTrack's news


Make a comment

Your comment will be reviewed, before being posted