Series of resolutions asks six of Denmark’s pension funds to drop their ‘black money’ investments in coal, oil and gas projects that cause climate change.
Hundreds of thousands of academics, engineers and lawyers in Denmark are set to vote on divesting their €32bn (£23bn) pension funds from the fossil fuels that drive climate change.
The first of a series of resolutions will be filed on Monday asking six funds to dump their coal investments by 2018 and exclude high-risk oil and gas projects such as tar sands extraction and Arctic drilling.
Campaigners are hopeful of success after resolutions demanding divestment from all fossil fuels were only narrowly defeated in 2014. The pension funds, which Danish professionals are obliged to join, cover almost 5% of the nation’s workforce.
“The Danish energy sector is obviously more green than elsewhere in the world, but even in Denmark we have a responsibility to do our absolute best to drive the [green energy] transition and part of that is moving out of black money,” said Prof Thomas Meinert Larsen, at Copenhagen University and part of the Danish Fossil Free Campaign. “I care about the future for the coming generations.”
