Achmea is withdrawing from coal and tar sands

Zeist, 9 July 2019 –Achmea will no longer invest in companies that generate more than 30% of their revenue from coal or from the extraction of oil from tar sands. These companies will be placed on the exclusion list. Achmea’s strategy is to contribute to a healthy, safe and future-proof society and investing in these coal companies and tar-sand processors is not compatible with this.

Achmea is seeing an increase in the damage and disruption caused by climate change. This is why we are excluding the most polluting coal companies from our investment portfolio. This industry is responsible for a very large share of greenhouse gas emissions worldwide. Investing in these companies is no longer compatible with Achmea’s strategy.

Intensive involvement in transition to sustainability

In addition to actively excluding investments in coal companies and tar-sand processors, Achmea will also continue to exert influence by means of its intensive engagement process. Polluting companies are actively encouraged to make their business operations greener.

Willem van Duin: “Ultimately, we only want to continue investing in companies with a policy aimed at sustainability and those that are actively contributing to the energy transition. We are engaging on this issue, for example, with the remaining mining and utility companies we invest in. We are counting on these companies being able to demonstrate that they have a policy to switch to more sustainable alternatives over a fixed time frame.”

Achmea Investment Management invests the assets of its customers, including pension funds, and is the third largest institutional asset manager in the Netherlands with more than €130 billion in assets under management.